BALTIMORE — A store manager was threatened and nearly attacked in Hampden after a customer became irate when she was repeatedly told to put on a mask inside the store.
The confrontation happened on Sunday at Brightside Boutique in Baltimore.
Surveillance video captured the customer getting in the face of one their employees and calling her names after the customer refused to put on her mask.
At one point in the video, the customer is seen slamming her fist on the counter behind the cash register.
“It wasn’t really until about the fourth or fifth time that I had to tell her to put the mask over her nose that she just got very very angry,” said Katie Schisler, who is the store manager seen in the video. “And you can see that she just keeps pressing forward at one point I'm almost leaning into this wall she is so close to me she is stepping on my actual feet.”
At least three different times, the video shows the customer charge at Schisler, shouting at her and pointing her finger in Schisler's face.
“It was completely uncalled for,” Schisler said. “There was no reason you speak like that any one. I was just doing my job.”
Last week, Governor Larry Hogan lifted the state’s mask mandate, but still gave local jurisdictions and businesses the power to keep it in place.
Baltimore decided not to lift its indoor mask mandate, saying more people need to be vaccinated.
“There’s been no set standard,” Schisler said.
Rachel Cooper, who is the director of operations for Brightside Boutique, fears encounters like this will continue to happen due to confusion over mask mandates.
“We don’t have security. You’ve seen in the video how this played out. Unfortunately, when customers act like that, we have no way to defend ourselves and unfortunately they’re getting aggressive because they’re confused.
Cooper said she’s hoping city leaders will offer their support and clear up any confusion so what happened to Schisler doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“I hope that someone at a government level steps in and helps small businesses and businesses like myself and restaurants kind of clear the air on the confusion that’s going on so we don’t have to take the aggression from customers,” she said.
Brightside Boutique filed a police report but so far there are no charges in the case.
