"Repeatedly asked him to bring his voice down": MEC defends choking incident response
The CEO of Mountain Equipment Company is doubling down on defending a Vancouver store manager’s actions in a recent incident.
It comes after a video came to light showing a loss prevention officer choking a customer who was trying to make a return.
The company has gotten rid of the loss prevention officer from a third-party company and called his actions “unacceptable,” but stands by how its store manager and other employees handled the incident.
“Despite our generous return policy, the item in question appeared heavily used over the 18 months the customer owned it, and not in a returnable condition,” CEO Eric Claus said in a statement Tuesday. “The customer did not accept this explanation and continued to argue in an intimidating manner with our front-line staff for over 15 minutes.”
The customer, Amir Ghasemzadehnaghadehi, told Daily Hive he was trying to return his Yeti cooler because it was defective. The drainage valve didn’t work, even after he tried buying a replacement part to fix it.
He said staff accused him of lying about it being defective, and the incident ended with a loss prevention officer pushing him to the ground and putting both hands on his throat.
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“Our manager repeatedly asked him to bring his voice down and eventually asked him to leave the store,” Claus said. “Ultimately, it took the assistance of an off-duty VPD officer to escort the customer off the premises.”
Ghasemzadehnaghadehi confirmed an officer came over, and alleges staff told the officer he was being arrested — and only relented that he was simply asked to leave when the officer asked them if he’d shoplifted.
In the end, Ghasemzadehnaghadehi was banned from the store. He left the faulty cooler on the sidewalk.
“Still I’m in shock,” he told Daily Hive earlier this week. “They judged me. They took me as a person who was not a decent citizen for an unknown reason.”
Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin said the incident is still under investigation.
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