Police: Woman pepper-sprayed employee at Tanger Outlets store

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WPDE) — Horry County police are searching for the woman who pepper-sprayed a retail employee at a Tanger Outlets store on Monday.

Officers were called to the North Face store around 6 p.m. at the Tanger Outlets on Kings Highway.

HCPD is looking to identify a woman they say pepper-sprayed a North Face employee at the Tanger Outlet on Highway 17, Dec. 9, 2019. (Photo: HCPD)

A group of customers suspected of shoplifting had been identified by store employees, police say, and employees began “store-dictated standard intervention procedures.”

The customers became irate, and the situation escalated; police say one of the employees began recording the incident on a cellphone. While leaving the store, one of the customers noted the camera, momentarily left, then returned and pepper-sprayed the employee recording the incident.

The woman is now wanted for assault.

If you have any information on this incident, you’re asked to call HCPD at (843) 248-1520.