CLERMONT, Fla.,None — A loss prevention officer at a Lake County department store is facing charges after investigators say she illegally detained a teenager.
Clermont police say the Belk loss prevention officer, Mary Abbott, saw 13-year-old Kordell Oliver with his 11-year-old cousin and wanted to question them about a jewelry and cell phone theft inside the Belk store earlier this month. Police say Abbott followed the boys into the Publix in the same shopping center and asked them to come with her. She then allegedly escorted the kids out of the Publix and into a back room at Belk.
"He told her, 'I feel uncomfortable and I want to leave. Can I leave?' And she stood up, blocked the way, and he tried to squeeze by when she picked him up and slammed him down and handcuffed him," said Tanya Harrison, Kordell Oliver's mother.
"I don't think she should keep her job, I really don't," Harrison said.
Abbott claims she was only trying to control Kordell after he hit and kicked her as he was leaving, but Kordell said that's just not true. Police say witness statements and surveillance video do not back up Abbott's claim.
"I didn't take nothing, so I didn't know why she did it," Kordell said.
Abbot now faces charges of child abuse and false imprisonment. Eyewitness News tried to talk to Abbott Wednesday night, but she refused to answer her door.