Wild moment Coles shopper confronts 'customer' spying on her: 'Leave me alone'

Daily Mail​

13-05-2025

A shopper shared footage of the moment she confronted a woman she claimed was an undercover Coles worker spying on her.
The woman had been doing her grocery shop when she claimed she noticed a woman in a red top following her around.
She pulled out her phone and filmed the woman who was seen carrying several items in her hand.
The woman stared at the shopper before briefly walking away.
She quickly returned and asked: 'So what's the reason you're making (a) video.'
'Well, you're surveilling me so I'm surveilling you too,' the shopper said.
The shopper shared the footage to TikTok along with the caption: 'Tailgated at Coles by this schmuck'.
The video has been viewed almost 400,000 times and attracted hundreds of comments with social media users agreeing the shopper was being surveilled.
'The girl in red is an undercover security guard of the store,' one said.
'She is looking at the woman who is filming the video to check if that woman is stealing from the store. Every store has surveillance like this, but people don't know.
'They just wander around with some products like (they're) shopping, (the) same as other people, to keep eyes on the thieves. I know because I use to do this job.'
'How do you know she was loss prevention officer?' another asked before the shopper replied: 'She told me.'
'I did it to make her leave me alone,' she said.
Others defended the woman, saying plenty of stores had undercover workers.
'It's not new. Loss prevention officers have been working at Coles and everywhere else for many, many years,' one wrote.
'They're allowed to. Private business. There are other supermarkets you can shop at,' another said.
A Coles spokesman told Daily Mail Australia 'plain-clothes security guards' were employed in 'some stores' to 'help keep our team and customers safe'.
A loss prevention officer is a type of security guard whose primary responsibility is to identify, deter, and investigate theft and other losses within a company.
They often work in retail environments, like shopping centres and large department stores, monitoring suspicious behaviour and potential theft.