News

This Video Of A White Woman Reportedly Calling The Cops On A Black Child Is Going Viral

by Caitlin Cruz
Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images

After a summer of "Permit Patty" and "Pool Patrol Paula," a new woman the internet is calling "Cornerstore Caroline" has joined the list of white people who reportedly called police on black people or children. A white woman called the cops on a black boy at a bodega in Brooklyn, accusing the 9-year-old child of groping her, according to reports from multiple New York news outlets.

The video of the Teresa Klein calling police after the alleged groping has been viewed on one Facebook profile more than 5.5 million times. The boy and another child are crying in the video. "I was just sexually assaulted by a child," Klein says into her phone.

"The son grabbed my ass and she decided to yell at me," Klein yelled in the video, also claiming that the boy's mother yelled at her, according to The New York Times.

Klein denied allegations of racism. She told the Times that the child's mother was aggressive. "A woman charged at me and flashed a badge and said that she would arrest me, and I called 911," she said. Bustle has tried to reach Klein for comment.

A PIX 11 News reporter asked Klein about why she made the call accusing the child of sexual assault. "Because as far as I could from the way it felt on my butt, that's what happened. It's not the first time I've been grabbed in the ass by a kid," Klein told reporters, according to the video.

After talking with reporters on Friday, Klein went into the bodega to watch the surveillance footage, according to the Times. When she concluded watching the playback, Klein told a reporter, "Young man, I don't know your name, but I’m sorry," according to the Times.

Surveillance video first published by the New York Post shows Klein at the counter on Wednesday at Sahara Deli Market in Flatbush, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. Klein is buying cat litter when the boy and his mother walk by, according to the Post.

The newspaper reported that the boy was carrying a bag, which does seem to touch Klein on the surveillance footage. "He was walking out with his mom and accidentally brushed up against her. His mother was right behind him," a employee of the deli told the Post.

Klein's story is just one of a handful of stories in the last year about white people calling the police on black people — usually children — even though they haven't done anything wrong. In July, a white man called police on a black boy for accidentally mowing a portion of his lawn as a part of the boy's lawn-mowing business outside of Cleveland. The boy was 12 years old, according to the Times.

In June, a woman dubbed "Permit Patty" called police on an 8-year-old black girl selling bottled water near AT&T Park before a San Francisco Giants game.

In May, a woman called "BBQ Becky" called the police on a black family in Oakland who were grilling with a "non-charcoal" grill in a public park. In April, Starbucks employees called the police on two black men waiting in the store.