Belk

My friend and I both went to this Belk tonight to look at dresses and jewelry. I found a few pairs of earrings I wanted, and waited outside the fitting room for my friend to try on her dresses. While waiting, I decided not to get the earrings, and left them at the table by the fitting room. She decided not to buy any of the dresses, and since the store had just closed we decided to leave. As we were walking to my car, this sketchy man comes OUT OF THE WOODS and starts walking towards us; we thought we were about to get mugged or something. He comes up to me and tells me he has reason to believe I stole the earrings I had left in the store. I explained to him where I had left them, but he chose not to listen and said "I need you to tell me the truth, or I will have to get law enforcement involved." This led to a back and forth banter between my repetitive "You can check my bag, I did not steal anything" and his threats to call law enforcement. My friend asked him to see his badge, as he wore normal clothing and showed no sign of actually working for the store. He quickly flashed what I assumed to be some sort of identification, but it all seemed extremely suspicious. Eventually, he asked us to go inside with him. Still unsure of the legitimacy of this guy, I walked a few steps ahead of him up the the door. An older blonde lady that had helped us look for a dress earlier opened the door to let us in, and I immediately began telling her I did not steal anything. I walked over to where I had left the earrings, and of course, they were still there. The man walked away with not so much as an apology, while the lady walked us to the door with a half-hearted "sorry about this." I am someone who would've spent a lot of money in here, and I would never steal anything in my life, but after being frightened by the scary man from the woods, and then humiliated and wrongfully accused by these incompetent employees, I will never return. I love shopping at Belk's and am a long time customer, but this was just inexcusable.