A woman shopping in Costco was filmed pulling down her mask, sticking out her tongue and coughing at a fellow customer in a video posted Wednesday night on Reddit.
"Costco Karen coughed in my brother's face when he asked her to wear a mask," wrote Reddit user locolukas, who posted the video.
Shortly after she coughed on him, the person recording suggested she stay home.
"You're going to be staying home now, 'cause I got COVID," she said. "You're going to get sick now."
The woman's cough was filmed about 2 minutes and 30 seconds into a 3-minute video, during which the person behind the camera followed the woman and her male shopping companion around the store. The video started with the person behind the camera asking the woman why her mask was covering her mouth but not her nose. She adjusted her mask so that it was also covering her nose, but it slid down several times over the course of the video, causing her to constantly readjust it.
"You're obtrusive and rude and disrespectful and need to back up," the woman said in response to his query about her mask. In the three minutes that followed, she repeatedly asked the Reddit user's brother to stop following her and find something else to do to occupy his time.
Meanwhile, her companion was seen at the start of the video with an American flag mask dangling from one ear but not covering his mouth or nose. The man tried ignoring the person behind the camera and appeared to encourage the woman to avoid engaging by guiding her away.
"You're walking away like you got a little shame in your game here, bud," the person behind the camera can be heard saying to the man. "Is there something about the mask you're opposed to?"
A Costco employee approaches them soon after and tells the man that he must wear a mask inside the warehouse. The man complies and asks the employee to stop the Reddit user's brother from filming them. The employee can be heard saying he doesn't want to further escalate the situation.
"Dude, what are you recording me for?" the man with the flag mask asks.
"Because I have family members who have died from COVID, bud, and you don't seem to care," the person behind the camera responds.
The woman walks back over and again asks the person behind the camera to stop following them. Shortly thereafter, she is filmed walking up to the camera, pulling down the mask and coughing at the lens.
The video attracted more than 400 comments early Thursday morning. Some users criticized the shoppers for not wearing masks, but others said locolukas' brother provoked the situation by following them through the store.
"I agree that my brother occasionally lacks tact, and I feel like avoidance of conflict has allowed mask deniers to f*** things up for the rest of us," locolukas wrote in response to a comment on his brother's strategy. "Just look at how security didn't handle the situation at all. At what point do we need to personally stand up for the greater community?"
Costco implemented a face mask policy for all its warehouses that took effect on May 4. In a letter to customers, Costco President and CEO Craig Jelinek said that he believed it was "the right thing to do."
"Our responsibility is to provide the safest possible shopping environment, and our position is that a face covering helps ensure that," Jelinek's letter said.
Newsweek reached out to locolukas for further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
