My Toxic ”manager” Asked To Search My Bag After I Clocked Out With No Warning

Hi I (30f) work in a small business retail store. I’m close with the owner and was in between jobs when I started working there. There are hardly any employees (me, a man [who was the manager for 12 years but recently lost the title because he tried to sue the owner], a girl who only works Saturdays and the owner) it’s kind of a toxic work environment and I’ve been planning on leaving because the ex manager is hard to deal with. On Thursday (my day off) he called me saying it was an emergency and I needed to call back. The “emergency” was him asking if I had seen a shirt that was going to be sent out in a web order. I hadn’t because he mostly deals with that and he has boxes laying around labeled “do not touch” so I don’t go through anything unless told to do so by the owner and that web order pile was not part of my job this week. Friday I’m about to leave as he’s coming in for his shift. He asks to search my bag saying the owner asked him to do this and it WAS (past tense, a policy I was never informed of when I was hired) a policy the owner wanted to start doing again. Is this illegal? Does he have a right to search my belongings? I haven’t been able to contact the owner because she is out of town until Tuesday. I’m under the impression he lost a shirt and is trying to put blame on me for it and cover his ass by implementing a story that I took it. I have never stolen anything from this job. I look up to the owner and see how much she time and energy she has put into this store and admire her for it. But I don’t want to be pushed around by this toxic co worker. Is there anything to say or do about this?

Location: California