Caught empty-handed: Me, Myer and the Mimco bag

When a shopping trip turns from fast fashion to feeling the heat, I’m faced with the realisation our teenagers are not always assumed innocent, writes Katrina Lezaic.

Reporter Katrina Lezaic had an interesting experience while shopping at Sunshine Plaza.

For me, late-night shopping at Sunshine Plaza with my daughter, 14, conjures up images of bonding over bubble tea while piling our trolley with $20 Kmart slippers for every member of the family because, well, God knows we are all going to be in for a long winter, if last year is anything to go by.

Not to mention the joy of selecting clothes for her and revelling in the way my gorgeous, lithe teen – thanks to winning the genetic lottery – would look stunning in even a potato sack.

At 5’ 9” she is a sight to behold, and I am dreading the moment she deems me too daggy to be seen with at the mall.

But for now, for these last few moments before she boycotts me, I’ll take it.

The arm around my shoulder, the excitement at a new fragrance at the Supre counter and even the pleading for overpriced Champion tracksuit pants (the generic brands are just as good and don’t scream eshay).

I love shopping with her.

But last Thursday’s shopping adventure was more than I’d bargained for.

We sashayed through Myer, me wrangling a trolley full of amazingly shrewd purchases including $18 vinyl shoes for work and an above the bra-line crop jumper because with fast fashion these days you can’t think about the why.

Forever the accessory queen, my daughter wanted to look at the handbags; I was keen to see their pyjamas.

We rendezvoused in the underwear section and she showed me a Mimco bag she liked, which she modelled over her shoulder.

Views of the Sunshine Plaza shopping centre.

In my mind though the Chloe and Lola nightshirt took precedence and despite the blue and white stripes I wanted to give it a whirl.

My daughter had flung herself into a chair and, while she scrolled on her phone she told me I should just try it on over my clothes, which I did.

She took a look and told me I looked like Santa.

I took that as a negative and we made our way out of the store past women’s clothing and perfume.

Back in the mall proper, the colourful preppy knits in Tommy Hilfiger next door to Myer beckoned.

It was there while perusing a cute woollen dress with a hefty price tag I felt a dark presence to my left.

I turned to see three heavily armed police officers closing in; a female with a pen and small device asked us to step outside the store.

I think I said “What did we do?” but I don’t really remember because my heart had started pounding like a rabbit on the run.

Apparently we were under suspicion of stealing and I was asked if I had been in trouble with the law before.

I wasn’t sure how to respond, because … well, hasn’t everyone?

But my Dad was a criminal barrister and he’d consistently told me to stay on the right side of the law, and for the most part I’d listened.

Shocked and scared, I told them my name when asked for ID. I didn’t have my wallet, I was using my phone to pay. They knew where I lived.

I was stunned and choked up so my daughter explained where we’d bought the items in our trolley when questioned.

A group of teenage boys who had clocked my daughter earlier had followed us in and out of Tommy Hilfiger and were now stopped next to us. They moved in a little closer to listen.

My focus narrowed as the people around us seemed to laser in on the scene I felt we were causing.

Somewhere along the line, it was made clear the police had been alerted to us stealing the Mimco handbag.

I looked at my daughter and sifted through everything in the trolley, praying I wouldn’t find it.

Would my daughter have done that to me? Not the daughter I knew.

But did I really know her still? She spends so much time with her friends now. So much time in a different world; a world of TikTok, vapes and false nails / eyelashes.

But she is still divine, my easiest child. My angel.

Could it be true she wasn’t as virtuous as I thought?

Were the Champion tracksuit pants more than just a front? Was she a little crim and I didn’t even realise?

I told the female police officer she was humiliating us in the Plaza. She responded to say no one knew what we were discussing.

I told her EVERYBODY knew what we were discussing and I told her I was having a panic attack.

Kindly, she informed me I wasn’t arrested.

Somewhere in there my daughter said she had left the bag in the women’s clothing section in Myer and, perhaps on the device or maybe through her earpiece, the police officer was at that moment informed the bag had been located there.

I asked for an apology. But instead she just said we were free to go.

The three of them turned and slowly walked away and I muttered something about valium.

I hugged my daughter and she said some things about police I won’t repeat.

She was innocent.

And I was angry. I’d questioned her. I’d questioned myself.

But I was now going to question the manager of Myer.

The next day he called me when he got the message.

He said he was horrified about what had happened and apologised. I said I wasn’t going to shop in Myer anymore. He said to give him a call next time I’m in and he would buy me a coffee.

I feel sad writing this but I don’t want a coffee.

Call me a Karen.

But for all those misunderstood teens out there who are growing up in a misshapen world we have designed, in this instance I’m happy to leave empty-handed.

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