Man accused of stealing own jacket at US store, says he was 'racially profiled'

James Conley III says he was "racially profiled" at an Old Navy store in Des Moines, US, where a store clerk accused him of stealing the jacket he wore to the shop.

On Monday, the man walked into the Iowa store wearing a blue Old Navy jacket that he had received for Christmas.

He went up to the counter to pay for some hoodies and the man behind the counter asked him if he also wanted to buy the jacket he was wearing.

Today I was racially profiled by the Old Navy store in West Des Moines, Iowa in Jordan creek. I was accused that I didn'...

Posted by James Conley III on Tuesday, 30 January 2018

"First, I started laughing because I didnt believe what I was hearing," the man said on Facebook.

"The store manager Beau Carter was very unprofessional and stereotyped me because I was a black male."

The manager reportedly tried to say scanning Old Navy clothing a customer is wearing is standard procedure but Conley said he always wears this jacket when visiting the store and has never been able to scan his clothing.

"Then after they scan my jacket they try to make me repay for it?? Finally the District Manager Shannon (who refused to give out her last name) came out and I made her check the surveillance tape to prove that her and her fellow employees were in the wrong for racially profiling me because of the color of my skin," the man continued.

"Once she confirmed that I was telling the truth (after watching the tape) she never came back out to apologize to me nor did the store manager Beau Carter as you can see in my videos below."

Conley posted the footage to his Facebook page and it has since gone viral, with more than 141,000 shares and over 100,000 likes.

Old Navy has since taken to its Facebook page to apologise to the man, admitting he had been discriminated against.

This week, one of our customers left our store feeling discriminated against. We have reached out to the customer to...

Posted by Old Navy on Thursday, 1 February 2018