A Massachusetts woman was stunned with a Taser and arrested at a New Hampshire mall on Monday, the result of an apparent miscommunication with police.
The trouble started when Xiaojie Li attempted to buy more than two iPhones at an Apple store at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H., on Dec. 7, WMUR reports.
After being told by store employees that she had bought the limit, Li took video of what she claimed were other customers buying more than two phones, she said through her 12-year-old daughter who served as an interpreter. The store manager reportedly asked Li to leave, and issued a stay-away order for the 44-year-old mother.
Li then ordered two phones online and returned to the store Monday to pick them up. WCVB reported that the woman was trying to avoid Massachusetts sales tax on the phones.
"The management of the store asked us to have her removed. The officer approached her, told her she wasn't welcome in the store, and she refused to leave," Nashua Police Capt. Bruce Hansen told the station.
Police said they shocked Li after she resisted arrest. A person in the crowd filmed the incident and posted it to YouTube.
"My mom says she doesn't know why they called the police because she doesn't understand what they are talking about," Li's daughter told WMUR.
However, Nashua Police Chief John Seusing said that was not a factor in the arrest.
“It was very clear to the officers that she knew exactly what was going on,” Seusing told the Nashua Telegraph. “The officer didn’t think for a second that she was having difficulty understanding what she was being asked to do.”
Seusing told the newspaper that the Apple Store hires Nashua officers to work security details because of past problems. He said the store enforces purchase limits to deter groups of customers who buy large numbers of iPhones and iPads and then sell them for a profit overseas.
CBS Boston reported that Li had $16,000 in cash on her when she was arrested.
Li is due in court in January and has hired an attorney, claiming police overreacted.