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Home / World

Woman apologises for accusing 9-year-old of sexual assault

By Ash Cant
news.com.auĀ·
13 Oct, 2018 11:22 PM4 mins to read

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New surveillance footage from inside the store shows the boy was holding a large plastic bag that appears to brush Teresa as he walked by. / PIX 11 News

A woman dubbed "Cornerstore Caroline" has been shamed after wrongfully accusing a 9-year-old boy of groping her behind in a store.

Teresa Sue Klein called police following the alleged incident which was filmed by a local and captured by CCTV footage which eventually surfaced online.

The surveillance footage shows Ms Klein standing at the store counter, when a young boy brushes past her. The footage shows the boy did not touch Ms Klein at all.

NEW: Surveillance footage proves white woman who called 911 on a young black child claiming he groped her - was wrong @PIX11News #CornerstoreCaroline Full story at 5 pic.twitter.com/agTK0MpgUG

— Andrew Ramos (@AndrewRamosTV) October 12, 2018

The footage also shows witnesses defending the boy before the woman pulls out her phone to call the police.

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"I was just sexually assaulted by a child," she claims to police on the phone.

A Facebook video of her outside the store talking to police was filmed and uploaded to Facebook by Jason Stovetop Littlejohn, who dubbed the now infamous woman "Cornerstore Caroline".

"As I walked up I noticed the argument, apparently the kid brushed up against her and she said he touched her and decided to call the police," the Facebook caption read.

"As you can see the kid is crying and the mom is upset."

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*Make this go viral* Meet Cornerstore Caroline White Woman calls police on a kid, saying he sexually assaulted her. As I walked up I noticed the argument, apparently the kid brushed up against her and she said he touched her and decided to call police on a nine year old child. As you can see the kid is crying and the mom is upset.

Posted by Jason Stovetop Littlejohn on Wednesday, 10 October 2018

White woman falsely accuses 9-year-old black boy of sex assault at Brooklyn deli.

Despite new surveillance footage that debunks the claim, the woman - now known as #CornerstoreCaroline - sticks to her story in our exclusive interview @PIX11News pic.twitter.com/dNQAF7Vc67

— Andrew Ramos (@AndrewRamosTV) October 12, 2018

Ms Klein also claimed to be a police officer, which she is not.

Spectators gathered outside the store, many of which tell Ms Klein to "go home" and one woman can be heard saying "she's nasty".

That #CornerstoreCaroline story really has me upset. Seeing the video of the little boy crying after being accused of assaulting that woman was haunting. 😢 Kudos to all the bystanders at the bodega who spoke up.

— cuteness everdeen. (@catladymemoirs) October 13, 2018

The Facebook video has been viewed more than 5.9 million times.

Later, the woman appeared in front of reporters and spoke of the whole ordeal.

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"As far as I could tell from the way it felt on my butt, that's what had happened," she said. "It's not the first time I've been grabbed on the a** by a kid."

She says she didn't see the footage until civil rights activist Shaun King posted it to his Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

BREAKING: This is the surveillance video of Teresa Sue Klein, also known as ā€œCornerstore Carolineā€ where she says a 9 year old boy sexually assaulted her. What you will clearly see is his bag of school uniforms lightly brush up against her. Based on this evidence, and a new review of the video, I am calling on the Brooklyn DA, Eric Gonzalez, to file charges against her. Upon a deeper review of the other video, she also impersonated a police officer, which is a felony. Not only that, but a brilliant local journalist Zainab Iqbal, found out that she never even called 911. She just did all of this to harass and humiliate this young Black family. This can’t be allowed. We have to bring an end to this behavior. She scarred this family, causing the two little kids to think they were about to be arrested for nothing whatsoever.

A post shared by Shaun King (@shaunking) on Oct 12, 2018 at 3:43pm PDT

King shared the CCTV footage to his 577,000 followers on Instagram with a lengthy caption.

"What you will clearly see is his bag of school uniforms lightly brush up against her," Mr King wrote.

"Based on this evidence, and a new review of the video, I am calling on the Brooklyn DA, Eric Gonzalez, to file charges against her."

While being interviewed, Ms Klein said she had reached out to Mr King but he hadn't got back to her.

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Mr King has since posted the interview to Instagram, saying:

"So Teresa Sue Klein, if you see this, we are asking the DA to charge you with harassment and false reports and impersonating an officer."

Ms Klein has since apologised to the young boy, via a television report according to the New York Times.

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