Did Muslim cashier demand Christian boy remove cross necklace? Here's the truth

Claim: A Muslim cashier demanded a 17-year-old Christian boy remove his cross necklace while inside a Shields sporting goods store in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Rating: For years, social media users have copied and pasted the details of an alleged politically charged incident involving a Christian and a Muslim. The story, set inside a Shields sporting goods store in St. Cloud, Minnesota, tells of a Muslim cashier demanding a 17-year-old boy to remove his cross necklace. As one example, on Aug. 22, a Facebook user posted (archived) the account of a woman wearing a headscarf serving as a cashier. The story does not use the words "Islam," "Islamic" or "Muslim," though users seemed to infer the religion from a reading of the text: Where Are We Gonna Stand? A young 17-year-old boy was shopping in St. Cloud, MN, at a sports store, called Shields. The cashier was a lady who was wearing a headscarf. The 17-year-old was wearing a necklace with a cross on it. She told him he would have to put his cross under his shirt because it offended her. He told her he would not do that. Then he told her that he thought she should take her headscarf off. She then called for the manager. The manager came out and told the 17-year-old to just put his cross under his shirt and everything would be fine. The boy again refused to do so and at that point he left the items he had intended to purchase and walked out. Several customers who had been in line behind him had heard the conversation and also left their carts full of items and walked out of the store!! KUDOS TO THE 17-YEAR-OLD!!! We all know we are in some very changing times, and given the same circumstances, I pray we would all have the courage this young lad had. We spent a few minutes talking about the challenge we are facing for our first amendment right of religious freedom. (I have to wonder what's next? Are 'they' going to try to ban the jewelry store owners from selling any jewelry with a cross on it?? WILL YOU HESITATE TO PASS THIS ON?? OR BE READY TO DEFEND YOUR RELIGIOUS RIGHTS!!! GOD BLESS YOU, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! I copied this and I agree with the young boy if you agree copy and paste it let blow fb up with this. Amen! 🙏💜🙏 Other users primarily reposted the same story on Facebook, though posts also appeared on Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived). In short, this story was fabricated. It never happened, so we've rated this claim false. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo failed to locate any news media outlets credibly reporting the story as fact. Instead, the search results displayed Snopes' previous debunking of the claim from 2016, which described a similar unfounded story about Walmart, as well as an article about an unproven matter going back in email forwards dating from 2003 (if not earlier) involving a woman wearing a burqa yelling at a grocery store cashier for wearing an American flag pin. The St. Cloud Times has also reported on the false rumor about a Muslim cashier telling a boy to remove his cross necklace, including in 2019. Kevin Murphy, identified as the general manager of the St. Cloud Scheels, told the newspaper the story was "not true." The reporting also clarified the tale's mention of "Shields" apparently referenced the Scheels sporting goods chain of stores. Some Facebook posts sharing this claim from 2016 remain publicly available as of this writing in 2026. We contacted Scheels and the St. Cloud store for comment and will update this article if we receive further information. For further reading, we previously reported about a rumor alleging a Muslim family purchased a Bible-producing company, as well as a claim that a video showed Muslims tearing down a Christmas tree because it offended them. Sources LaCapria, Kim. "Did a Teenaged Customer Argue with a Muslim Cashier Over His Cross Necklace?" Snopes, 21 Jan. 2016, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/muslim-cross-necklace-argument/.Macalus, Austen. "Debunked Story about a St. Cloud Cross Necklace Confrontation Re-Emerges." St. Cloud Times, 24 June 2019, https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/2019/06/24/fake-news-story-cross-necklace-re-emerges-st-cloud-scheels/1550928001/.Mikkelson, Barbara. "Angry Muslim Confronts Cashier Over Flag Pin?" Snopes, 23 Mar. 2004, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/cashier-flag-pin/. By Jordan Liles Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016. Article Tags