Reakt Apparel boss Kayla Thomas reveals customer who tried to score a free crop top before a gym selfie on Instagram undid her lie

The founder of an Aussie activewear company claims to have caught a customer trying to get a free top.

Kayla Thomas, from Melbourne, who runs Reakt Apparel, recently shared a TikTok video explaining how the drama unfolded.

Ms Thomas said a customer ordered three crop tops from the company’s Instagram and as the woman lived not too far away she decided to deliver them herself.

“I thought it was local, she goes to my old gym and she has mutual connections (followers) with me, so she’ll be fine,” she explained.

“So I’ve decided I’m going to drop it off with her so she gets it the same day.”

The order was for two ‘Balance’ crop tops in ice white and lilac and one ‘Ultimate Twist’ crop in black.

After the clothes were delivered mid-morning, an email arrived that evening from the woman at the business address stating that the order was incomplete.

“The products are great, but I’m missing one product, can you help me with that?” the customer wrote and added a photo of the white and lilac tops next to the opened package.

Ms Thomas said she was baffled the black top was missing as she had packed the order herself hours before.

‘I think, how is that possible? Like, did I make a mistake? I literally doubted myself.’

She politely replied to the customer and promised she would investigate further.

“After a few hours, I’m still very confused and doubting myself, but from a business point of view, I think, who would lie about this?” said Mrs. Thomas.

‘Maybe I made a mistake. So I thought; do you know what crop (top), I’ll send her another one.’

But when she told the customer she would send the top again, she got a response that immediately made her suspicious.

Ms Thomas explained how she found the customer posing in a gym selfie wearing the same top she claimed was missing from her order

The customer thanked her but asked if the replacement top could be white instead of the black twist crop top she originally ordered.

“Here I thought, no, this is really weird. It’s weird!’

Ms Thomas then asked a mutual friend on Instagram about the woman, who said she went to the same gym, which often reposted the woman’s workout selfies.

So Mrs. Thomas went on a scavenger hunt and pulled out the gym’s page.

“There she was… the same day, with the black crop apparently missing,” she said.

And the weird thing is she literally tagged me in the post but I didn’t see it because her account is private and we don’t follow each other. So I sent her a follow request and she accepted right away.”

In a “part two” video, Ms. Thomas said she confronted the customer by sending an email and even “liking” her selfie posing in the “missing” top, but got no response.

Ms. Thomas caught the customer in the act after an Instagram search

She sent the client another message mentioning some of the challenges of running a small business and said the woman eventually replied to apologize and say she had found the top.

Commentators on the video supported Ms. Thomas.

“Glad she found it…where could it have gone when opening the package,” said one viewer.

“I have a camera that films all my orders being packed so we can check what has been shipped,” said another.

“Very frustrating, you handled it well,” added a third.