Whole Foods facing suit by shopper
She’s bringing the beef to Whole Foods.
Longtime shopper and firsttime plaintiff Tessa Lena is suing the organic food giant’s Houston St. outpost, and the security firm that patrols its aisles, after an overzealous guard allegedly accused her of theft and popped her in the chest.
Lena, a loyal customer at the East Village supermarket for five years, is seeking $10 million in damages from Whole Foods, Elite Security Personnel and the unidentified assailant.
She said she first encountered the security guard when the woman accused her of shoplifting a bottle of juice in April 2017.
“She tackled me without getting me on the ground,” said Lena, an artist and writer who lives in the East Village. “She said, ‘Give me your bag.’ I said, ‘Yeah, right.’ ”
Lena claims in her lawsuit that because the woman didn’t identify herself as a guard and wasn’t wearing any clothes identifying her as one, she had no idea the woman worked for the store.
According to the suit, the woman was “wearing a grungy T-shirt and had the overall appearance not of a security personnel, but of an agitated and disheveled ‘regular person.’ ”
Lena says she paid for everything she left the store with, but that the woman followed her out and at first implied Lena had gone for the five-finger discount.
A manager intervened after the guard grabbed her and, after about a half hour of hashing everything out — Lena said the drink in question was purchased at another store — she was allowed to leave.