10 February 2023 , 13:22
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A mum filmed the moment a Wilko worker appeared to grab items from her and refused to allow her to buy them, leaving her daughter scared of "the man in black".
Sophie Dellow, 31, visited the Kingston Centre store in Milton Keynes with her children Jaylon Dellow, 12, and five-year-old daughter Emelia Stephen, when the dispute happened on January 28.
The children were playing hide and seek, so Jaylon clambered into a metal storage trolley and while his mum told him not to, she claims a worker said he "wasn't happy".
He then allegedly followed them around the store and turned off the tills so they couldn't scan their shopping.
Sophie claimed the man, who wore a black uniform, snatched her daughter's sweets away before trying to rip a pack of cotton wool balls away from her own hands.
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Sophie Dellow pictured with her two children (Kennedy News and Media)In the heated clip, the worker appears to grab the packet and said "you're not paying" - before scooping up the rest of the shopping and stashing them behind him.
With his jaw visibly tense, the man then hauls their entire basket behind the tills as Sophie pans the camera to her frightened daughter.
Now Sophie has vowed never to shop in Wilko again - as she claimed little Emelia has been left too terrified to sleep in her own bed and cries over "the man in black".
Wilko said Sophie's experience "fell short of their expectation" and the team member involved has since left the business.
Sophie, from Milton Keynes, said: "It was horrible. I don't know if he was having a bad day and took it out on us. My daughter was so anxious she chewed all the skin on her fingers. Every time she washed her hands she was crying because they were stinging.
"Every single day she mentions [the employee], which is heartbreaking and frustrating for me. My little girl won't sleep in her own bed and she keeps saying she's scared of a man in black - he was wearing all black.
Sophie said her daughter Emelia is now scared of the "man in black" (Kennedy News and Media)
Sophie said the worker refused to allow her to buy items at the store (Kennedy News and Media)"It's really affected my daughter, massively. This shopping centre is my local shopping centre. I cannot go there now. I got petrol from there the other day and my daughter was shouting 'get me out of here' because she's so scared.
"Even at the weekend I was talking about going out for dinner and her first comment was 'is that near [the Wilko employee]?
"He's really upset my children and I just hope no family has to go through what we did that day."
Sophie claimed her son hadn't damaged anything and insisted the employee took it upon himself to follow her around the store.
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Sophie said: "My son suffers with ADHD and he'd just climbed into one of the metal trollies with teddies and stuff like that in. I could hear him saying 'Emelia, come and find me' to my daughter.
"In his head, he'd seen it as hiding from his little sister. I'd seen him in there and explained he had to get out in case he makes the teddies dirty, breaks something or hurts himself.
"My sister was there as well and said 'if the man sees you he won't be very happy'. But we didn't know [he] was standing behind us at this point. He just started being really rude to us. He said 'no, I'm not very happy - he shouldn't be in there'. I apologised and said 'leave it at that'.
The worker criticised the way Sophie's children were behaving (Kennedy News and Media)
An image of the tug-of-war over items (Kennedy News and Media)"From then, he was like 'it's not good enough. He shouldn't be climbing in there. What if my crate got damaged?' I explained again that nothing was damaged and asked him to leave it.
"He continued and started following us around the shop. He was right behind me and antagonising me. He would not leave me alone. I then explained that my son has ADHD and didn't realise the consequences of what he'd done.
"That's when he turned around and said 'I don't care if he's got ADHD, maybe you should learn to control it', which is disgusting.
"We then went to the tills and he said 'no, you're not paying for that'. My little girl who is five had packed her own pick and mix and was really excited.
"I walked over to the till, he followed us and as I was trying to scan my shopping which he then snatched out of my hand. It was a horrible experience and the way he acted was disgusting."
After the irate member of staff began to throw her shopping behind him, Sophie started filming - and claims her son was also "petrified".
Sophie said: "He then turned the till off so I couldn't pay for any of my items at all. My son was petrified as well and kept saying 'Mummy, I'm so sorry'. He knew he shouldn't have got in there. To be fair, the employee probably did that as a child as well to be fair. Most boys do stuff like that."
A Wilko spokesman reportedly said: "We're proud to provide an inclusive place to work and shop, and we want all our customers and team members to feel welcome. Unfortunately, this customer's experience fell short of their expectation, and the team member involved has since left the business."