People often assume anyone tidying up a store aisle must work there, but appearances can be misleading.

One hard-of-hearing woman had no idea a disgruntled customer was about to mistake her for staff — and make quite the scene in doing so.

You’ll want to read on for the full story!

‘Earbuds’

I made the mistake of seeing some things out of place at Target and setting them straight while I was shopping, all while still wearing my Barbie pink logo-embroidered work blouse, when I had someone start tapping me on the shoulder, mad at me for… something.

(I’m HOH, and I’d taken my aids out for a hearing break after a very long day, but I put them back in.)

This customer was already at a 10.

Turns out she was mad I’d “ignored” her, then got super mad I put “earbuds” in, and I guess assumed I was putting them in to listen to music and further “ignore” her and be rude about it?

Anyway, my tidying equaled staff restocking in her mind.

She went along with it for a while.

I let her run out of steam, then asked if there was something I could help with, since I hadn’t seen a Target employee walk past the whole time.

I am a naturally helpful person—even if she was barking (metaphorically and literally) up the wrong tree, it might be something another customer could do (something off a shelf, fetching a cart, etc).

Finally, she broke the news to the entitled lady.

Turns out she was after something out of stock on the shelves (we went and double-checked) and wanted me to check in the back.

“Unfortunately I can’t do that, that would be trespassing… pointing at shirt logo Not Target.” (Like the pink shirt wasn’t a clue?)

I didn’t hang around to find out how her towel search went. I had places to be, and I was ready to be done hearing for the day (again).

It wasn’t the shopping trip she expected, but at least she walked away with a story to tell.

What did redditors make of all this?

Perhaps there are some perks of being HOH.

Why tolerate this behavior at all?

Maybe these rude people are only being enabled.

This person wishes they could tune out like this.

Clearly this customer had more things going on in their life to react this disproportionately.

Some people can’t read labels or the room.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.