A COUPLE say they were “publicly humiliated” after the man was wrongly identified as a shoplifter and escorted off the premises.
Ellie Thatcher, 21, and Steven Anglesmith, 26, were shopping at Droitwich Home Bargains when he was told to leave by a manager.
The couple said he told them that Steven, from York, who was wearing a hat and has a beard, had been flagged as a shoplifter by the store's AI facial recognition.
However, it was human error which had caused the mistake.
Mrs Thatcher, from Stourport, said: “It was busy and we were just shopping minding our own business when we heard a voice say, ‘excuse me you’re going to have to leave the store.'
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“The manager came up and told us my boyfriend had been flagged on their AI security system for shoplifting. We were both taken aback, my heart dropped and we were just in shock.
“He walked my boyfriend outside and I was left inside with a tall power fan and heavy bag with three managers who felt like they were staring at me.
“I’m an anxious person anyway and I was made to feel like I was doing something wrong when all I was trying to do was buy what we came in for.”
Ms Thatcher said she tried to raise her complaints in the store at the time but staff refused to give her the manager’s name.
“One of them said, ‘well your boyfriend must have been shoplifting’, or something along those lines.
“The main manager didn’t want to hear my side at all and I felt intimidated.”
The couple later contacted Home Bargains by email and were told that they had to contact the Facewatch live facial recognition system.
“They had to take a 360-degree picture of his face on a blank background in order to clear his name,” Ms Thatcher said.
“We followed this up in an email to Home Bargains but they just brushed off my experience.
“They apologised for the upset and inconvenience but it came across as if they were passing on the blame to the security company."
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A spokesperson for Home Bargains said: “We have been made aware of the incident in question and have carried out an internal review.
“Our investigation identified that this was the result of human error.
“We understand the distress and embarrassment this caused and we are attempting to contact the customer directly to offer our sincere apologies.
“We take matters of this nature very seriously and are reviewing the circumstances to help prevent a recurrence.”
Facewatch has a 99.8% accuracy rate, according to its website.
Facewatch blamed "human error" in three other reports of shoppers being wrongly accused at different stores nationally earlier this month.
A spokesperson said: “We understand how distressing it must have been to be incorrectly challenged while shopping.
"Our technology was not at fault, this was a case of human error.
"We sent the correct alert, but the wrong individual was incorrectly challenged in the store.”
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How do you feel about stores using AI to flag potential shoplifters? Let us know in the comments.
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