A supermarket chain assured social media users that it is “privately” dealing with the viral incident involving actor Marco Neri Yutuc who was wrongly accused of stealing a product in one of its branches.
The 60-year-old talent on Tuesday shared a video where he said Puregold Putatan’s head of security stopped him for supposedly shoplifting a roll-on deodorant.
According to Marco, he bought a new deodorant and opened his bag to see if it was the same variant he was carrying with him at that time.
The “Batang Quiapo” talent bought a new deodorant after his old one had been entirely consumed.
“Ito, walang laman ‘to,” Marco said in his video as he showed off his old deodorant.
“Ngayon, pinagbibintangan ako dito sa Puregold. Na ano daw, nagnakaw daw ako. Kaya tignan natin, buksan natin ‘yung bag kung may ninakaw nga ako,” he added.
The actor also showed his newly-bought deodorant with the receipt.
“Ito resibo o, tapos pinagkakamalan pa akong magnanakaw. Mali naman sila, ‘di ba? Tama ba ‘yon, pagbintangan ka? Nagbayad ka naman,” Marco said.
“Porket binuksan mo lang bag mo para kunin ‘tong walang laman na deodorant. Para mabili mo itong isang deodorant, malaman mo kung ano ‘yung binibili mo, kung tama itong deodorant na ‘to,” he added.
Marco also shared another video where he emptied his backpack in front of security to prove that he did not steal the deodorant or any other product in the supermarket.
“At ayaw akong pauwiin kahit gutom na ako [hanggang] ‘di nakikita ang lahat [ng] nasa bag ko. Sa huli, napahiya sila,” he said on a Facebook post on Monday.
The actor also warned viewers to be “careful” since they could also be wrongly accused of stealing in the supermarket.
Apart from Facebook and YouTube, Marco also uploaded his videos to his TikTok account, where it has similarly reached viral status.
It additionally reached Twitter, where some Pinoys called out Puregold for how the management treated the actor.
“The way she’s crossing her arms, jusko,” an online user who saw the video tweeted with melting face emojis.
“If this was done to Papa and ganyan ang gesture ni Ate, I wouldn’t hesitate to have her fired. If you are doing your job, no alleged shoplifting would happen,” another Twitter user commented.
“Plus, wala bang CCTV sa Puregold to check instead of you bag-raiding Tatay?” she added.
Puregold on Tuesday acknowledged the incident in a statement with emojis. It reads:
Mga ka-Puregold, we saw and heard it all.
Sorry. We really feel bad para kay Tatay [loudly crying emoji] and how this situation was handled.
This puts the pain in striving to be panalo [pleading face emoji]
Please know that this incident is being dealt with privately, with kindness and patience. We ask that you allow us to learn from this and improve.
Puregold is a 25-year-old supermarket chain trading goods such as consumer products on a wholesale and retail basis.
As of 2021, it has a total of 532 stores across the country.