A terminally-ill grandma claims a Lidl security guard banned her from shopping at her local store - because he 'mistook her for a druggie'. Sick Karen Sahiti, 55, says she was left 'devastated' when a male security guard told her she would not be allowed to return to the store.
She says she was confronted by the guard when she popped in to buy beer for her son and use the toilet earlier this month. Karen, who suffers from lung condition emphysema and brittle bone disease, says the guard allowed her to use the loo. However, when she returned to the security guard at the store in Stratford Road, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, she claimed he told her she was banned.
Karen said: "He looked me up and down a few times and said: ‘Look at the state of you’. I was so confused. The guard and the manager banned me from the shop and I went home and told my daughter.
"When she went down to complain and get their details she recorded the security guard say he had mistaken me for a druggie. It broke my heart."
Karen, whose weight has dropped from 13st to 6st and is receiving end-of-life care, originally stopped off at the store to buy her son beer.
The security guard, to Karen’s surprise, looked her up and down slowly from head to toe then told her: “You can – but only if you come straight back to me afterwards.”
Puzzled, Karen did as he said. When she returned she says he banned her from shopping there.
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She said: "He told me he was refusing me entry into the store because I looked suspicious. I was horrified and said: 'Why? How do I look suspicious?’
"He looked me up and down again and said: ‘Look at the state of you’. I was so confused that I asked to see the manager.”
The manager arrived and made a slight concession – Karen could shop in the store, but she had to be watched at all times as she did so. Karen left the store immediately, but she was so upset that she sat in her car crying for 20 minutes before she was able to drive home. Later, her daughter went to complain, accusing the store of discrimination.
Karen said: “I realised by the way they were treating me that they thought I was a heroin addict and might steal something. Even though I was clean and tidy, it must have been because I’m so thin.
"I'm 55 years old and I’m dying. I may look ill and thin, but I’m certainly not a druggie. How dare they? I don’t have long left, probably only months, and I certainly don’t need something like this happening.”
Since then the family has contacted Lidl head office asking for an apology but are yet to receive one at the time of writing. A Lidl spokesperson said an investigation would be held into the incident.
They said: "We are investigating this as a priority."
The supermarket giant also promised a statement would be issued “as soon as possible” when the investigation has been completed. Lidl has been approached again for further comment.
