Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) claimed a Target worker blamed him for the rampant retail theft in the state without seeming to know who he was.

Several California mayors laughed as Newsom told them about a time he saw someone shoplift at a Target where he was shopping. After seeing the man leave the store without paying, the governor said he went up to an employee and said, “Oh, he’s just walking out. He didn’t pay for that.”

Without appearing to know she was speaking to the governor, the employee got upset at him for what she believed was a lack of accountability by the state.

“I said, ‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ She goes, ‘Oh, the governor.’ Swear to God, true story, on my mom’s grave. ‘The governor lowered the threshold. There’s no accountability,’” Newsom said on a Zoom call with Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson, and Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan.

“I said that’s just not true. I said we have the 10th toughest, $950, the 10th toughest in America,” the governor continued.

Newsom said the employee stated, “Well, we don’t stop them because of the governor.”

“And then she goes, she looks at me twice, and then she freaks out. She calls everyone over, wants to take photos. I’m like, ‘No, I’m not taking a photo. We’re having a conversation. Where’s your manager? How are you blaming the governor?’ And it was, you know, $380 later, and I was like, ‘Why am I spending $380 when everyone can walk the hell right out?’”

Retail theft is on the rise in several major cities, including San Francisco, New York City, Washington, D.C., and others. California prosecutors and business leaders have long criticized the state’s Proposition 47, which classifies nonviolent property crimes that do not exceed $950 in value as misdemeanors, as “toothless” and to blame for the rise in shoplifting and other thefts.

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Over the summer of last year, many San Francisco stores installed security gates at self-checkout lanes in which a receipt is scanned before exiting the store. In December, many of the businesses, including certain Safeway and Target locations, began removing self-checkout stations altogether in an attempt to curb theft and retail crime.

In response to the state’s worsening crime problem, Newsom announced a comprehensive crime bill addressing retail theft earlier this month. While the governor’s proposals would not amend Proposition 47, the bill proposes new penalties for people who steal items and then try to resell them, as well as changes laws allowing police officers to arrest people suspected of retail crimes even if they did not witness the crime in action.