A Black woman named Ijeoma Ukenta captured a white woman’s bizarre meltdown at a Victoria’s Secret store in New Jersey’s Short Hills Mall. The eight-video series, which Ukenta has been updating on YouTube since Sunday (July 11), begins with the woman charging at her with her hand open, as if to hit her.
Ukenta says the white woman, identified in a police report as Abigail Elphick, first tried to push her out of the way while she was shopping. Then, she started recording her, and the woman became hysterical and tried to charge at her. In the clips, Elphick has a full-on meltdown once she sees she’s being recorded.
“Stop recording me!” she screams. Rather than leaving the store, Elphick continues to scream at Ukenta and pretends to faint in front of the cash registers. Later, she gets back up and begins chasing Ukenta, yelling, “Get away from me!”
While Ukenta and the Victoria’s Secret staff wait for mall security to arrive, Elphick calls police and claims she is being threatened. Security and two police officers eventually arrive at the store, but cops say they can’t escort the woman out of the mall since it’s outside of their jurisdiction.
In an update posted on Monday (July 12), Ukenta checks in from the police station and shows viewers the cops’ report.
“I have the police report, which is somewhat true, but really, really long,” she says in one clip. “I’m happy I did record because even the officers stated that I only showed him the video of her laying on the floor when I showed him everything.”
Ukenta said she intends to file complaints against both responding officers since they appeared to show Elphick more sympathy, despite her being the aggressor.
“I didn’t feel protected,” she said. “I’m also filing a complaint against the mall security.”
“I don’t really have any issues with [Victoria’s Secret] … not as of yet,” she continued. “Now, if they give us problems getting the [security] video, then we’ll talk about that. That’ll be another story.”
In the police report, Elphick admitted she was in the wrong, but claimed she had a panic attack when she realized she was being recorded since she didn’t want to lose her job due to her behavior.
“They took her statement first because, of course, she called the police,” Ukenta said. “And she completely lied. She’s trying to say I started videotaping her causing her to have a panic attack, at which time, she followed me to try to get me to stop recording.”
On Tuesday (July 13), Ukenta surpassed her GoFundMe goal of $20,000 — raising almost $35,000 — to pay for her legal fees as she seeks justice. See the series of videos below.