Grocery turns over video to police to investigate indecent exposure allegation | News

WHITEVILLE, NC (WECT) - Thursday, a spokeswoman for Food Lion said that someone with the company delivered a surveillance video tape of an alleged indecent exposure incident that was caught on camera to the Whiteville Police Department.

The news comes a day after police said that managers at the store refused to release the video.

The spokeswoman added that Food Lion officials are working with police to assure they have a smoother and effective relationship.

Read the original story from Wednesday below:

Whiteville Police say that they're investigating an indecent exposure case caught on camera at the Food Lion in the Whiteville Town Center shopping plaza. 

But they say that managers at the store are not releasing the evidence.

According to Dallas Hewett, a 19-year-old cashier at the store, two weeks, ago a male customer unzipped his pants and exposed himself to her.

Hewett says after the incident, she told a manager and they watched the incident which was recorded by a security camera.

"The video isn't that clear. But he's wearing an automatic uniform," said Hewett. "I figured if we can get the video police, maybe [sic] able to use technology to zoom in and get more details."

Detective Tedd Dixon says that managers at Food Lion will not give them the video. Dixon says it's not the first time managers have refused to hand over evidence.

"There's been cases of checks being stolen or some type of crime and we can't get video," said Dixon. "In this particular incident with the cashier, it's frustrating because she came to us for help, but our hands are ties because of a tape."

He added, they could get a search warrant but it's going to be hard to explain to a judge why they're getting a search warrant for a victim. Dixon says most businesses in town easily hand over videos.

A spokeswoman for Food Lion sent WECT a statement that read, "For the safety and protection of our customers and associates, and to ensure that we only release video to authorized agents, we request information such as evidence of a police report and the relevant case number before We can release video recordings from within our store."

Waldo goes on to add they apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to working closely with local police as they investigate this unfortunate incident.

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