A man at an Australian McDonald's got so angry at an employee for asking him to wear a mask that he threatened him and broke down the COVID barrier.
In a now-viral video posted to TikTok by @dreg32, a man approaches a McDonald's employee and begins to raise his voice and throw his mask at the employee.
He then proceeded to shove at the plexiglass barrier separating staff from customers. The video has amassed over 1.9 million views since it was posted over the weekend.
The incident, which occurred over the weekend in Sydney, Australia, was filmed by a bystander and has users up in arms about how the man mistreated the employee.
The man in the video stood talking to the employee with his two friends beside him, but as the altercation went south, another one of his friends joined in. Right after the man punched the plexiglass barricade, the woman on his left attempted to calm him down as she escorted him away.
During the altercation, the man refused to put on a face mask and nearly hit employees when he punched at the plexiglass barrier.
While most of the argument is hard to hear, the McDonald's employee could clearly be heard telling the man that has to wear a mask.
Face masks are mandatory while inside public venues in Sydney after more than 100 days of lockdown due to COVID-19. All residents in New South Wales over the age of 12 are required to wear a mask indoors, even if vaccinated.
While the man threatening the employee has not been identified, many users in the comments quickly began dropping names of people they believed were responsible.
"In all honesty, no one ever deserves to go to work to be treated like that...," one person commented.
"Embarrassing is an understatement," another user said.
Australia has had one of the strictest responses to the COVID pandemic, with officials closing the borders for more than 20 months. As a result, Australia has been able to keep its COVID numbers relatively low compared to other developed countries.
In the United States, which has had many problems with compliance with various mandates, many store and restaurant employees have witnessed customers' rage.
Throughout the year, Newsweek has reported on several meltdowns that occurred due to people being asked to wear a mask. Many of these incidents occurred on airplanes.
In October, a man was filmed going on a disturbing rant after he allegedly refused to keep his mask on during the flight and was asked to hang up his phone. In the video, the man appeared to verbally attack one of the flight attendants before bystanders tried to get involved.
"Mind your business, cause I will break your neck," he said to the bystander.
The passenger was escorted off the plane by authorities after the plane had to turn around. A bystander told Newsweek that while he left the plane willingly, he was shouting and cursing the entire time.
