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A white female motorist had a “funny feeling” when she saw a black man baby-sitting two white children in a Georgia parking lot, according to 911 tapes made public on Friday.
Corey Lewis, 27, claimed he was the victim of racial profiling when he was spotted outside a Walmart in Marietta with the kids in his care.
“Hi there, I’m in the Walmart parking lot at Barrett Parkway and I just got my nails done and I see this black gentleman with these two little white kids and so I just had a funny feeling,” the woman said, in a recording released by Cobb County.
The woman told police she approached Lewis and asked how he knew the children.
“And I said, ‘Are these kids OK? Do you know these kids?’ And he goes, `Why wouldn’t I?’ and I said, `I wouldn’t know,’” the woman told a dispatcher “Let me see the little girl and he said, `No.’ Let me see the girl and just see that she knows you.”
After calling police about Lewis, she followed them to a gas station before officers eventually reached the baby sitter and two kids — and learned there was nothing wrong.
Much of the 911 tape released by Cobb County was silence, with the woman followed along and staying on the line with the dispatcher.
On multiple occasions, the woman without prompting explained that she would feel guilty about not calling 911.
“It could be nothing but I’m not sure and I figured, let me call up,” she said. “And again, if I didn’t do this, I’d be up all night.”
”And if I’m wrong that’s great. I’m thrilled,” she added.
Lewis works at a youth mentoring program that teaches kids social skills, etiquette and character development.
The parents of 10-year-old Addison and 6-year-old Nicholas were out to dinner when Lewis called to tell them what was happening. The mom and dad said they had to be convinced this wasn’t a prank, because the story seemed so unbelievable.
“I said are you telling me that because a woman saw a young African-American male with two white kids that they were pulled over by the police?” mom Dana Mango recalled asking a police officer.
“He was apologetic and said, ‘Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry that appears to be what happened.’”
The incident is the latest case of a white person calling the police to report an African American doing a seemingly innocent act.
This summer a woman called police in Oakland after spotting a black family enjoying a lakeside cookout. She was labeled #BBQBecky.
Also this earlier year, two men were arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks where they had been waiting for a business meeting.