Mackay mum demands formal apology over Rebel sports store confrontation

A Mackay mother says her daughter was racially discriminated against when she was confronted over a shirt staff at a national retailer claimed was stolen.

A Mackay mother is demanding an apology after she claims staff at a national sporting goods store racially profiled her daughter.

Zowie Wills wants the formal apology over the ordeal she says left her daughter Kieyarra Wake with heightened anxiety and fearful of going out in public since the incident at Rebel Mackay about 1.50pm Thursday.

Ms Wills said Kieyarra, 21, was a regular customer at the Northpoint store, buying shirts or shorts every Thursday and while staff had previously monitored her daughter’s movements, there had been no physical confrontation.

But on Thursday, when Kieyarra – wearing a red sports shirt sold at the store for $50 – went inside, Ms Wills said staff confronted her, grabbing the shirt and wrongly accused her of stealing it.

“Male and female staff have approached her and said it’s a stolen shirt,” Ms Wills, who was waiting in the car, said.

“I’ve come in and asked what the problem was. It embarrassed (Kieyarra) in front of the whole shop of non-Indigenous people.”

Neither Kieyarra or Ms Wills is accused of any wrongdoing.

A Rebel spokesman said the company had investigated the incident and “found no evidence the customer was accused of theft or spoken to in an insensitive manner”.

“A review of the store’s security vision shows that the customer was not touched by any team member,” the spokesman said.

“While Rebel regrets this customer believes she had a negative experience in our Mackay store, we treated the matter seriously and investigated the claims.”

Ms Wills confronted Rebel staff about it, livestreaming the exchange on Facebook as she questioned two people behind the front counter as police were called to the store.

“I said to them I will wait for police and they found that my daughter had not been stealing at all,” she said.

“They made her feel completely discriminated against in front of heaps of people.”

Ms Wills recorded another exchange outside the store with two police officers who said staff had told them stock had been stolen in a ram-raid incident in recent weeks, and the shirt Kieyarra was wearing was among the items.

A Queensland Police spokeswoman was unable to confirm a ram-raid or break-in at the Heaths Rd store in the past month.

“It’s just not fair; we are a good family, she doesn’t talk, she has bad anxiety and this makes her 100 times worse now,” Ms Wills said.

“It was just awful. My daughter is now just so upset.

“She always wears sports clothes, that’s just how she has been.

“She was categorised. She was simply put on show in front of a whole store of people.

“This stereotype is not fair.”