A Bad Day At Belks

Whenever I go into the Belks store here on Hilton Head Island I have to laugh to myself because of an incident that occured with Kacie ten years ago. It's very funny to me now but not that day!

We had recently moved to Hilton Head Island and things seemed to be going pretty well. Kacie seemed a little homesick but we kept her busy by taking her to the beach and involving her in various activities on the island. I now see from her diaries that she was heartbroken and could't wait to get back to Baltimore.

But anyway, one morning when Nancy had gone to work, Kacie came to me and asked if I work drop her off at Belks so that she could do a little shopping. She was 14 years old, but the shopping center was close to our house and I felt that she would be safe. She was just as happy as could be when I dropped her off and told her that I would be back in a couple of hours. About 30 minutes after I got back to the house, the manager of Belks phoned me and said that my daughter had been arrested for shoplifting and was being held in his office by two police officers. At first, I honestly thought that a friend was playing a practical joke on me but I soon took the call seriously and raced to Belks. When I entered the manager's office, I'll never forget Kacie sitting there between two police officers with a smile on her face.

The manager described the events that took place as follows-
Kacie walked into the ladies' clothing department and went directly to the bra display. She took a bra from the rack and then walked over to the video camera (which was clearly displayed on the wall) and then proceeded to put the bra into a paper bag while looking into the camera. She then walked to the nearest exit and was grabbed by security as she left the store. Needless to say, I was shocked but even more shocked when the manager told me that she said she had done this to pay me back for making her move to Hilton Head. I then examined the bra which would have comfortably fitted Dolly Parton and not a skinny little girl like Kacie. To make a long story short, Belks did not press charges against us, but we had to sign an agreement to keep Kacie out of the store for I believe two years. We never had any other problems like this with Kacie and we all learned a lot that day.

As I go through her writings, I see that Kacie eventually adjusted to life here on the island and actually enjoyed herself on many occasions with her many friends. The lure of Baltimore was too strong and she returned home after attending one year of college here on the island.