Australian man accuses elderly couple of stealing from store, witness explains

An Australian man's video accusing an elderly couple of stealing from a store has sparked criticism online, after a woman who said she witnessed the incident claimed they had actually paid for the item.Australian man accuses elderly couple of stealing from store (Photos: Trent Carter/Instagram)New Delhi,Sep 29, 2026 11:44 ISTAn Australian man has become the centre of criticism online after a video of him confronting an elderly couple outside a department store went viral.Trent Carter accused the couple of stealing an item after noticing an anti-theft sensor attached to a packaged box they were carrying.Seated outside Kmart, the couple, likely from an Asian country, were engaged in a conversation when Trent interrupted them.“Hey, you stole that? You stole it? You’re a stealer? You steal it,” he told the couple, pointing towards the sensor on the box. The couple appeared puzzled by the accusation. “Walking past this couple and noticed something odd. Obviously, they had just left Kmart and couldn’t wait to get home,” Trent said in the caption of the post.The video was shared widely online and drew criticism on several platforms, including X. While the comments section on Trent’s original post has been turned off, an X account that shared the video highlighted an earlier screenshot of a comment from a woman named Sara Gadhwal who claimed to have witnessed the incident. Sara claimed she had been at Kmart as a customer and had seen the couple pay for the item at the register. She explained that the elderly couple appeared unaware that the security tag or sticker had to be removed before they left the store.“They did not steal anything. I was present there as a customer and saw them paying for the item at the register. Being elderly, they were unaware that the security tag/sticker needed to be removed before leaving. It was an honest mistake, not theft. Please refrain from accusing them without knowing the full truth,” she wrote.Several users, meanwhile, also called out Trent’s behaviour as racist, particularly in light of the couple’s apparent difficulty in understanding and responding to him. One person said the man “looked innocent” and suggested that he did not understand the language and therefore could not defend himself.The criticism became more heated, with a user adding, “Beat him. Racists need to be beaten.” Another said they had reported Trent Carter’s post for allegedly sharing misleading information. Several others called for Carter’s account to be reported.Some social media users also claimed that the elderly couple was from Nepal. However, that detail could not be independently verified.- Ends