It was simply put one of the most disastrous gaffs in public relations I've ever witnessed.
An angry woman in a bright red blazer who identified herself as the manager of the Reisterstown Road Shopping Center ran out to complain about unauthorized filming and gathering on the far reaches of a parking lot closest to Home Depot.
She interrupted a news conference by Baltimore police who are desperately trying to find missing Phylicia Simone Barnes, a 16-year-old girl who disappeared from her sister's apartment within sight of the lot.
"You can't film here," she shouted at the police, seen above during the event in the photo by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum. Pictured is Sgt. William Simmons, foreground left, and Detective Robert Burns of homicide unit.
It wasn't just a news conference. Dozens of detectives and a busload of cadets had gathered there with top police commanders and turned it into a makeshift command center to distribute fliers to help in the search.
The woman remained unmoved.
"You are being very discourteous and rude," she told one cop.
She then did something I'll never believe.
She pulled out her cell phone and called her office, and told someone there to call -- you guessed it -- the police! One top commander turned to me and said with a smile, "I'd love to see the young beat cop who pulls up on this."
It was a classic standoff of mall cops versus city cops. In this case, two unarmed mall cops versus a virtual wall of armed city cops. I'd put my money on city cops. They too remained unbowed, and instead of retreating off the lot (yes, it's private, and yes, they didn't tell the mall they were coming), they held their turf.
The incredulous police stood dumbfounded at the scene unfolding before them. "Total disrespect," one detective said. "A shame," said another. Others simply laughed and encouraged reporters to try to interview the lady. That didn't go very well. She ordered me and other reporters, including television camera operators, off the property.
The more she yelled, the more they filmed her, and the fiasco played out in front of the missing girl's father, Russell Barnes.
"It's the work of the devil," the father told me. "If I have to stand out here and hand out fliers myself, and get arrested, I'll do it."
The woman didn't care who she was yelling at. She pointed at the homicide commander, Maj. Terrence McLarney, who simply held up a flier of the missing girl, needing no words to convey his sentiment: "We're here for her."
Finally, Bill Parks emerged. He identified himself as an official representing the mall owner. He complained, albeit less frenetically than the woman, that police had blundered by not informing the mall that they were coming.
He explained he wasn't trying to impede a police investigation -- it was more the filming he objected too. Police were filming the event for the Internet along with reporters. "We want to cooperate," he said.
But rules are rules. She even chased after a cadet was handing out fliers to shoppers (though to be fair, police said later that they encountered no problems handing out the fliers inside the plaza).
Here's what could've happened. The woman could've quietly approached a senior police officer and asked what was happening. She could've nicely but firmly expressed her concerns about being blind-sided, but now realizing that the cops were trying to help find a missing girl, simply faded away.
For someone who didn't want media attention, the woman certainly attracted a lot more than she or anyone else bargained for. Screaming at TV cameras to go away only makes them stay longer. And rules can be bent and bad manners forgiven when it comes to finding a missing 16-year-old girl.