Imagine you went to pick up a delicious treat and then a few days later find out that you have been branded a thief? Well, that just takes the cake - literally.
When a Florida woman decided to pop to her local French bakery, little did she know that a misunderstanding at the tills would lead to her face being plastered across her city.
Margarita Sciapin, a YouTuber and jewellery designer from Boca Raton, is now suing the establishment after the business printed out posters with her face on, branding her a ‘cake thief’ after she apparently ran away with a cake.
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According to the lawsuit Scaipin filed last week, the event in January of this year has caused her emotional damage and being hospitalised due to shortness of breath and rapid heart rate.
Claiming that the Paris Morning bakery is defaming her, the self-described raw eater is now asking more than $50,000 in damages.
Within the legal documents, the mum-of-four went to pick up a $29 mocha cake, but the cashier gave her the wrong product and couldn’t 'simply switch the cakes'.
Sciapin recalls that the bakery employee suggested issuing a refund for the wrong cake and to then charge her for the correct one, but she wasn’t keen on the idea.
This is because she didn’t want to be accidentally charged twice if the refund didn’t go through, so she decided to keep the incorrect cake and told the employee 'not to worry'.
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But that’s not what the business is alleging of the supposed bakery thief.
Instead, they wrote an explanation on one of their public posters: "This Karen thief stole a cake from us at 5 p.m. on January 22, 2023.
"When an employee tried to explain that our refunds don't show up in statements immediately, she got angry, refused to believe the employee, took the cake, and left while her cake was already refunded.
"She was very impatient when the employee was trying to figure out how to do a refund receipt, instead of waiting, she ran off with the cake."
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As well as providing their side of the story on posters, they also showed a receipt which detailed Sciapin’s full name as well as some of her credit card information.
Sciapin has claimed that these posters have led to the bullying of her 12-year-old daughter at school, as well as her own health issues.
But it wasn’t just the one bakery that flashed the posters of the mother.
In fact, an employee of the bakery told the Miami New Times that: "It's like a thing across our stores. They actually printed a bunch of different themes of her and then gave it to our stores in case she comes back. We have memorabilia of it in our kitchen."
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The employee also claims that they had used images from Sciapin's own social media to produce the posters.
A manager told the publication that she 'didn't see the refund on her credit card and said she was just going to take the cake.’
"If she would have waited for two minutes for the employee to text me, to figure out how to print a refund receipt, she would have gotten it. But she was rushing the employee and not being patient, not being very understanding."
Thankfully, the bakery has confirmed that the posters have been taken down.
Topics: News, Crime, US News, Food And Drink, Health
Britt Jones