A customer was shopping at the handbag counter of the defendant’s store. She did not make any purchase and left the store. When she was a few feet away from the store, a store employee tapped her lightly on the shoulder to attract her attention and asked her if she had made any purchases. When she inquired why, he asked, "what about the bag in your hand?" the customer said it belonged to her, and she opened it to show by its contents that it was not a new bag. The employee gave the customer a dirty look and went back in to the store. The customer then sued the store for false imprisonment. Was the store liable?

False imprisonment occurs when a person is detained without justifiable reason. The customer mentioned in the text above was not arrested, neither the employee nor the store owner used force to force her to open the bag. Even though the employee did not look at the customer with courtesy, he did not arrest her, did not use force against her or prevent her from continuing on her way, which indicates that there was no action that could indicate that the employee or the store promoted false imprisonment.