No one really likes to have their receipt checked when they leave a store — and some people will outright refuse to show the receipt if their local laws say they don’t have to. But there’s really no need for receipt-checking incidents to get physical.

And yet, a couple of St. Louis-area Best Buy shoppers were arrested on Wednesday following an altercation in which a Best Buy employee was hit in the face.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports that the 61-year-old store employee asked to see the customers’ receipts as they were leaving the store on Wednesday afternoon. He was apparently checking the receipt because the merchandise they had purchased had been paid for at a counter other than the front-of-store cashier.

The female, a 38-year-old East St. Louis city councilwoman, reportedly became upset about this and began yelling obscenities at the employee. Then the male, 39 and described by the News-Democrat as a former area high school football star, is then alleged to have struck the employee in the face with an open hand.

The employee fell to the floor. Police were called and the couple was arrested. He was charged with aggravated battery and could face up to five years in prison, while she was cited for disorderly conduct.

The employee was treated for minor injuries at the scene.

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