Gavin Newsom discusses shoplifting incident he witnessed. ‘Where’s your manager?’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom saw a shoplifting at a local Target. But the real controversy came when a clerk did nothing—and blamed the governor for motivating her not to act.

Newsom was shopping at a Sacramento area Target. It’s unclear when the alleged incident occurred. Target Corporation did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment by deadline.

The governor discussed the incident during a Zoom call to promote Proposition 1, a ballot measure to restructure mental health and substance abuse treatment in the state and also address the homelessness crisis. A recording of the account was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by San Jose Mercury News reporter Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler.

“As we’re checking out, the woman says, ‘Oh, he’s just walking out, he didn’t pay for that.’ I said, ‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ She goes, ‘Oh, the governor.’ I swear to God, true story, on my mom’s grave,” Newsom said in the recording.

“‘The governor lowered the threshold, there’s no accountability,’” the cashier said, according to Newsom, who said he responded, “‘That’s just not true.’ I said we have the 10th toughest, $950, the 10th toughest (felony theft threshold) in America. She didn’t know what I was talking about.”

The cashier did not recognize Newsom at first, the governor said.

Newsom stressed that California has the 10th lowest felony theft threshold in the country, saying “No one gives a damn about it, right?”

“And I said it’s just not true, and she said we don’t stop them because of the governor. And then she looks at me twice and then she freaks out, she calls everyone over, wants to take photos,” Newsom said in the video.

“I’m like, ‘No, I’m not taking a photo. We’re having a conversation, where’s your manager? Why are you blaming the governor? And it was, you know, $380 later, and I was like, ‘Why am I spending $380, everyone can walk the hell right out?’”

Newsom has called for California lawmakers to toughen the penalties for people who steal in order to resell, as well as those who actually resell stolen property. He also has called for clarifying the state’s penal code to allow law enforcement to aggregate multiple thefts together in order to reach the felony threshold.

That legislation is pending consideration by state lawmakers.