Woman Kicked Out of Trader Joe's for Refusing to Wear Mask, Blames 'Democratic Pigs'

A Trader Joe's shopper in North Hollywood, California railed against "Democratic pigs" and screamed at employees after they asked her to wear a mask while inside the grocery store.

Trader Joe's opened a massive 16,000-square-foot store at 6150 Laurel Canyon Boulevard Friday. But it received an unexpected surprise by one woman who claimed she was "harassed" by workers and shoppers alike because she refused to don a mask.

Several videos recorded inside the store depict the Los Angeles-area woman throwing down her shopping basket, screaming at store employees, and saying her doctor will not let her wear a mask to protect her and others from coronavirus infection.

Twitter user D. Giles recorded several videos about finding "the Karen of the San Fernando Valley," which show the unidentified woman launching into a tirade after he said another shopper told her to leave if she won't wear a mask.

"He was harassing me, he cussed me out, do you think this is OK?" the female shopper is heard screaming in the face of several masked employees, before one signals for her to leave the store. "You're f**king pigs, you're f**king Democratic pigs, all of you."

"That man harassed me for not wearing a mask," the woman tells a bevy of shoppers recording the incident. "I have a breathing problem, my doctor will not let me wear a mask. So anyone harassing me to wear a mask, you guys are violating federal law. Did you get that? Get that on camera," she continued.

The woman in the video is ultimately escorted from the store. At one point in the video, she could be seen slamming her plastic shopping basket on the ground and angrily brushing off several store employees.

Newsweek reached out to Trader Joe's corporate office for any remarks about the woman's tirade Friday at the newly opened North Hollywood store.

The American Lung Association (ALA) has repeatedly rebuked the "myth" that masks cause low oxygen levels in people with asthma or other respiratory ailments. "There is absolutely no scientific evidence that mask-wearing or physical distancing weakens the immune system," physicians at the ALA wrote in a June 18 post. Doctors at health agencies across the country have challenged what they've described as the "myth" that oxygen levels drop while wearing masks.

A South Carolina physician, Dr. Megan Hall, produced a video widely shared on social media that refutes the claim against masks by testing her oxygen saturation and heart rate using a pulse oximeter in four different scenarios. Her first test was conducted with no mask, the second used a surgical mask, the third used an N95 mask, and the fourth used both an N95 mask and a surgical mask together.

"There is no significant change in my oxygen saturation (or HR) in any scenario. Though it maybe inconvenient for some, you can still breath," Hall concluded.