Shocking video shows teen assaulting a worker in Missouri Walgreens after the group refused to pay for sunglasses

• The recorded assault took place on August 2 in the city of Independence
• A teenager sees the female employee being knocked to the ground and hits her
• Police say the teens had previously refused to pay for the sunglasses

Missouri police are searching for two teenage girls after one of them was caught on camera brutally assaulting a Walgreens employee who had tried to stop them from shoplifting.

The horrific incident occurred on August 2 in Independence City, about 10 miles east of Kansas City.

“An employee of the company was assaulted when he tried to intervene in a shop robbery,” the Independence Police Department said in a statement.

In the footage taken by a witness inside a car, a girl wearing a white shirt and a red purse appears as she throws the employee to the ground outside the store.

The girl was seen hitting the employee, who was reported to be in her 60s, while she was on the floor.

Another teenage girl was seen screaming in the background as the attack began.

Police said the two youths were inside the store with a third teenager and an adult before the attack.

When the group walked into the store, only one of the teens was wearing sunglasses.

However, when they got out, one of the teens without sunglasses was wearing a pair, according to police.

The employee reportedly told the adult woman who was with the teens to pay for the item, but she refused.

The two young suspects then returned to the store, and one of them took a sprite and sprayed it in the employee’s face.

The employee told the police that the teenagers attacked her after she stopped the goblin.

Fox4 KC reported that the employee has since recovered and plans to press charges.

Police released pictures of the suspects asking the public to help identify them.

One of the women appears to be the suspect who was seen assaulting the employee. The other appears to be the teenager seen screaming in the background.

Police spokesman Jack Taylor told Fox4 KC that the incident left him “traumatized”.

The management is still investigating the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Winborn at 816-325-7330 or call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

It comes after Walgreens’ chief financial officer told investors on an earnings call earlier this year that executives may have exaggerated the effects of organized shoplifting.

“We probably cried a lot last year,” said James Kehoe.

Kehoe also said the company mischaracterized the amount of theft that occurred in the chain’s stores and may have spent too much introducing security measures.

Walgreens closed five San Francisco stores in October 2021, citing organized theft.

Robbery has been at the center of political discussions about crime, especially in metropolitan areas such as San Francisco.

The scourge of shoplifting — which has worsened during the pandemic — has cost the industry nearly $100 billion in 2022, the National Retail Federation said.

Recent videos of brazen shoplifters have proliferated online, as residents become increasingly frustrated with rising crime rates.

Surveillance footage shows a gang of masked scammers driving shopping carts loaded with valuable products from a Home Depot in New York.

Another clip showed shoplifters loading duffel bags and backpacks with perfume and cologne from a Ross store in Colorado.

One of the directors of Ross Dress for Less said thieves target her Colorado store up to four times a day.

Footage captured on the site shows a number of thieves breaking into the store and filling bags with items before casually leaving.

“It happens a lot,” store manager Ashley Finley told CBS News. I would say this type of accident happens four times a day.