Netizens Threaten To Boycott This Game Shop In 1U After It Accused A Customer Of Stealing
The store has released a statement regarding the incident.
By John Lim — 22 Mar 2017, 05:55 PM
A local game retailer recently received heavy backlash on social media after some of its employees wrongfully accused a customer of shoplifting
In a now-deleted Facebook post (a screenshot of the post can be found here), Holy Chit (real name unknown) explained the unfortunate event in detail.
He had gone to One Utama with some friends for lunch. After which, they dropped by Gamers Hideout to check out some discounted items.
The group of friends were then approached by the store manager who asked them when they were going to return the game that they had stolen.
Confused and caught off guard by the allegation, the group defended themselves. This further agitated the store manager, who proceeded to call the police.
Holy Chit and his friends were forced to wait for the police to arrive in the shop.
The manager was certain that he had captured the right culprit as he claimed to have CCTV footage as proof.
While waiting for the police, they watched the CCTV footage of the theft. According to Holy Chit, the person in the clip didn't resemble him or his friend - who was also accused - at all.
Angered by the false accusation, Holy Chit questioned when the footage was captured. A staff confirmed that the theft happened on 22 February 2017, around 9.40pm at night.
With a chat history timestamp on his phone, Holy Chit proved that he wasn't in One Utama on 22 February. In fact, he was in Central Festival Mall with his girlfriend.
However, that didn't convince the persistent manager. When the police arrived, he and his friend were pulled aside and had their IDs taken for further investigation.
The police asked the manager to verify who stole the games. Things took a surprising turn, he pointed at a different person (who, according to Holy Chit, had just arrived from Ipoh for the weekend).
When the police asked for a final confirmation, the manager was dumbfounded and couldn't give an answer.
The victim then handed over his membership card to verify if he had made any transactions on that day. While his record came out clean, the staff found out that the thief's name is close to Holy Chit's real name.
Aside from stealing, the alleged thief had also purchased a game on 22 February, which explains why his name was on the transaction list.
Seeing as the evidence no longer pointed Holy Chit’s friends, the police probed the manager on why the initial theft wasn’t reported. He couldn’t give an answer.
The police then requested for Holy Chit and his friends as well as the store manager to follow him to the police station
The manager declined, saying that the store had a high number of customers that day. Instead, he sent his off-duty supervisor.
At the police station, an on-duty sergeant allegedly laughed after a closer inspection of the CCTV footage, as perpetrator did not resemble Holy Chit and his friends at all. They were let go shortly after.
The incident spread like wildfire on social media, causing Gamers Hideout's reputation to take a massive beating
Some netizens have even pledged to boycott Gamers Hideout and its outlets in Klang Valley.
Shortly after the incident went viral, Holy Chit's Facebook account was allegedly hacked and deleted
The post detailing the incident has also been deleted. Some netizens have accused Gamers Hideout of committing the deed as a way of minimising the social backlash.
On 21 March, Gamers Hideout finally released a statement on Facebook for the events that transpired on that day
In the statement that was written by the founder of Gamers Hideout, the company acknowledged its own poor handling of the matter and had contacted the affected party to offer their apologies and compensation.
Gamers Hideout also apologised for the subsequent, unwholesome response that some their staff made on social media regarding the incident.
Besides that, the company denied any claims that it had taken down Holy Chit's Facebook account, saying that it's impossible for them to pull out such "high-tech moves".
You can read the statement in full here.
