September 5, 2025
While no one was hurt, customer feel Dollar General should be held accountable for putting customers’ safety at risk.
Chaos erupted in a Chicago Dollar General location after customers were locked in the store by an employee during an active robbery, ABC 7 Chicago reports.
The takedown went viral on social media, as customer Kizzie Davis filmed the entire ordeal, showing the group being locked inside the South Side location. Davis was at the checkout line when suddenly she said the store’s metal security gate came down. Davis said roughly three masked thieves rushed into the store while she and others rushed to the back of the store to call the police.
“One of the robbers came running down the aisle we all were in, and he brushed past us like, ‘move out the way,’” she said.
However, once she and the fellow shoppers came back to the front, they were not permitted to leave until officers with the Chicago Police Department arrived, remaining locked in.
It wasn’t long before the police arrived at the scene, revealing the anxiousness of the customers to get out.
“It could’ve been a hostage situation. Somebody could’ve had a gun,” Davis said.
As the video circulated on social media, users seemed to take the customers’ side, citing that there was nothing in the store of significant value to prompt employees to lock the doors.
“Aint nothing in there worth enough to keep me locked in there,” @marylovesbennie said on X.
Another user said he would sue for potential bouts of PTSD, while another said locking customers in the store could have had grave consequences.
“WTF, the customers don’t want to be there if it cracks off, and neither do the employees. Dollar General has money & they’re insured, don’t die for someone who will replace you the next day,” @Ken73624588 wrote.
Eventually, all the customers, including Davis, were released, and two men were arrested and taken into custody. While no one was hurt, she still feels Dollar General should be held accountable for putting customers’ safety at risk. “It’s a slap in my face as a customer, like my safety was in jeopardy, and they didn’t care,” Davis said.
The viral incident comes as Chicago has been the latest target of President Donald Trump’s schedule of sending National Guard troops to combat crime. According to ABC News, during a press conference from the Oval Office, Trump said “we’re going in” to the Windy City but failed to say when.
He touched on some gun violence that took place over the 2025 Labor Day weekend as the reason behind federal intervention, issuing false claims that Black women from the area are pleading with him to come and help. “It won’t even be tough. The people of Chicago… are screaming for us to come,” he said.
“African-American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, ‘Please, President Trump, come to Chicago, please.’ I did great with the Black vote, as you know. They want something to happen.”
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