2 Illinois Women Sue Victoria's Secret

Two south suburban shoppers are seeking $100,000 in damages from Victoria’s Secret in Orland Park, after they were falsely accused of stealing merchandise, according to a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court in May.

According to their complaint, the two friends, Cherlonda Martin and Sherlean Lewis, once enjoyed shopping together as a social activity, but now it causes them fear and anxiety.

Last week, attorneys for Victoria’s Secret, a lingerie retailer, requested that the matter be moved to federal court, noting that the women are seeking more than $75,000.

While shopping at the store in Orland Square Mall on Feb. 26 this year, Martin tried on garments, while Lewis waited outside the dressing room. Lewis was upset that store policy prohibited them from sharing a dressing room, yet she said she saw two other females of a “different ethnicity” sharing a fitting room, the complaint said.

They complained to a manager and paid for their items, and as they left the store they were “confronted” by two uniformed Orland Park police officers and mall security officers, who yelled at them to drop their bags and remove the allegedly stolen panties, the lawsuit said.

They volunteered to submit to a search of their bags, but the officers “continued to yell and berate (them) in front of the crowd” that gathered near the store front, and told the women they had a video of them shoplifting, according to court documents.

A few minutes later, a second officer who entered the store reported that it was not Lewis and Martin on a videotape of the theft incident, and that the people who stole merchandise already had left the store, the complaint stated.

The Victoria’s Secret staff offered Lewis and Martin a “half-hearted apology,” and the officers said they were “just doing their job,” but the two ladies claimed they were “publicly humiliated,” suffered “debilitating fear and anxiety at the hands of the police and carry emotional wounds that may never heal,” according to their complaint.

No court date has yet been set.

Victoria’s Secret attorney David O’Connell said he expects the case to be moved to the federal court in the Northern District of Illinois. He declined to comment further on the case.