Gran’s hoodie ban

An 84 year old pensioner was left shocked after a security guard asked her to remove her hood while she was shopping in the Grand Arcade rail centre in Cambridge. Peggy Harden who suffers from arthritis was asked to show her face by the guard who explained the centre had a no hood policy for security reasons and her waist length brown jacket with a fur hood breached those rules.

The great grandmother and her husband were walking towards the department store John Lewis when the guard came up to them and were left feeling confused and intimidated by the whole experience. Peggy’s husband Desmond said “There were lots of youngsters in there who were actually wearing hoodies, but he came up to us. It’s ridiculous. It didn’t hit me straight away what was happening or I would have said a few words to him. Older people with walking sticks are not going start hitting people. We felt a bit victimised really, like we were being treated like criminals.”

Peggy had kept her hood on after coming into the arcade from the wind and the rain outside, because she found the centre to be very draughty however she had intended to remove it when she reached John Lewis. After the incident a spokeswoman from the Grand Arcade shopping centre apologised for upsetting Mrs Harden and her husband however defended their policy as the ban of wearing hoodies is for health and safety reasons, she said “It’s more about health and safety than intimidation. Grand Arcade has a ‘no-hood’ policy within the centre. This is to ensure a safe and enjoyable shopping experience for everyone. However, it is not our intention to cause any upset, and we apologise for any stress this may have caused. We are reviewing our policy to ensure the safety and well being of all our customers.”

Picture courtesy of loop_oh

UK News