Spencer’s ‘Karen’ accuses Black shopper of stealing her phone, then finds it in her bag

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A video has gone viral of a woman accusing a Black man of stealing her phone in a California Spencer’s store, only for her to find it was in her bag all along.

The video of the woman dubbed Spencer’s “Karen”, posted by TikTok user @fuxktdub on Monday, has garnered more than 2.2 million views since it went live.

The video has reignited the debate on racial prejudice in the US, and marks almost a year since a similar video was posted of a “Soho Karen” – who wrongly accused a 14-year-old Black boy of stealing her phone, she had instead left it in an Uber.

Spencer’s “Karen” has already accused the man, who goes by the name of Kinley, of stealing her phone as the video starts. The caption reads: “Karen really pulled this at a Spencer's. Racism alive and well."

The woman in the video, who has so far not been identified, pleads with Kinley black to give her phone back.

It is suggested that someone just call her phone, but the woman refuses to give her number to Kinley and the woman who is filming. She suggests they could have turned the phone off.

The clerk resolves the issue by calling the woman’s phone, which starts going off in her purse. The woman then apologises to the pair as they walk off, and comes back to them and apologises again.

Kinley had just moved to California from the southern states a month ago, according to his partner’s post on TikTok: “My husband's first time in 28 years. He grew up in the south too. Not a month in Cali and this happens,” she wrote.

Miya Ponsetto, aka “Soho Karen” appeared in court this week on Monday on hate crime, aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child charges. She could face up to 10 years in prison for tackling teenager Keyon Harrold Jr. in the hotel Arlo Soho on Boxing Day last year.