It was as shocking as it gets for Imtiaz Aziz, who was out shopping with his sister. He claims he was kicked out of a shop for being in a wheelchair.
“The shop owner walked over to me and started pointing towards the door. He came closer to me and told me to get out. He said, ‘get out, get out, get out,” said Imtiaz.
Imtiaz Aziz, originally from Fiji, now living in Auckland, was shopping in Otahuhu on Tuesday morning. His sister was with him. The incident occurred at Bes Mart when the two were looking for some T-shirts.
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Imtiaz claims the shop owner told him to leave the shop. He questioned back saying, “Why? Why should I get out? I am buying something from here.”
According to Imtiaz, other workers approached him and told him that the store was too small for his wheelchair to travel through.
"Everyone in the shop just started looking at me like I was stealing something from there. I have been in that shop before, and nothing happened. The shop is not small, it is big, and my wheelchair is not huge, it can fit easily inside," says Imtiaz who has laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.
"I felt sad, and I felt embarrassed,” says Imtiaz adding he wanted a written apology from the shop owner.
The shop owner claims that another wheelchair user had stolen from their shop recently so the shop owner "doesn't want those people to come."
"There's always someone pushing a wheelchair who comes here to steal," the female shop owner was quoted as saying by Stuff.
