Hong Kong police investigate alleged manhandling of Mannings customer by plainclothes security guards
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong police are investigating the alleged manhandling of a customer at pharmacy chain Mannings by two plainclothes security guards, who have since been fired.
Mannings on Wednesday said in a Facebook post that two undercover security guards hired by a third-party security firm at its Tsim Sha Tsui branch had been fired immediately for violating a code of conduct. The contract with the security firm was also terminated, it added.
The pharmacy chain “sincerely apologised for the mistreatment suffered by Miss Leung [the customer],” its Facebook post read in Chinese.
Leung on Tuesday posted on social media that she had been grabbed by the neck and dragged back to the Mannings store on Cameron Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, by the two plainclothes security guards, who misidentified her as a shoplifter.
She said she went to the store at around 10 am on Tuesday and purchased two jars of Chinese herbal cough syrup at a self-checkout kiosk.
But two women grabbed her neck and backpack when she was about 50 metres away from the store, Leung said.
The pair accused her of shoplifting and dragged her back to the store, she said, adding that passers-by had not intervened as she screamed for help. She presented the receipt for the purchase to a store manager and was told the pair were plainclothes security guards.
“I was utterly shocked. I was born and raised in Hong Kong and this had never happened to me before,” she wrote in Chinese. “I honestly thought I was being abducted.”
She said one of the security guards had apologised for having misidentified her as a shoplifter.
Her post gained attention on social media platform Threads, with many tagging Mannings and asking for an explanation.
Local media reported on Thursday that Leung had filed a report with the police and her case was being followed by criminal investigation officers of the Yau Tsim Mong district.
Mannings said in its Facebook post that the company’s management had apologised to Leung in person.
“We have set up a special taskforce to follow the matter, including to conduct a review of the security measures at branches, so that similar incidents will not happen again,” the pharmacy chain added.
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