Shopper spits on worker – then does it a day later in coronavirus dispute, PA cops say
A disgruntled shopper spit on another customer during a social distancing dispute, marking the second incident in one weekend, Pennsylvania officials say.
Philadelphia police are looking for a woman they say first got into a dispute at a store on Saturday.
The customer was arguing with an employee about “how she wanted to pay for her items” when she spit on him, the Philadelphia Police Department said Thursday in an email to McClatchy News.
The same woman returned to the store the next day and bumped into a customer, officers say. That’s when an argument about social distancing ensued, KYW and WPVI reported.
The woman “lowered her mask, stated ‘B----, I don’t have the virus,’ spit into the other shopper’s face and left the store, according to police.
Shopper Alexis Danilo told the Philadelphia Inquirer she was was “in shock” after spit came toward her face at Di Bruno Bros. market in the Central City area.
“I think this woman should be locked up,” she told the newspaper. “You should never be spitting on anybody and given the fact that there’s a pandemic, you shouldn’t be doing that.”
Danilo “was wearing a protective mask and glasses” and is OK, police say.
Officers released a photo of the suspected spitter, believed to be a white female in her early- to mid-30s with a “thin build, long reddish-brown hair, wearing a three-quarter length black jacket, dark pants, and a red bandana around her neck,” according to cops.
Spreading coronavirus
It isn’t the first time a person has been accused of spitting inside a Pennsylvania store in the age of coronavirus.
In the Pittsburgh area, police arrested a man they say crouched under a Plexiglass barrier and spit in a supermarket manager’s face, McClatchy News reported last week.
And in Harrisburg, a woman was accused of making a threat after spitting on a grocery store worker, according to the city’s police department.
To reduce the risk of getting COVID-19, health officials recommend social distancing, which involves avoiding crowds and keeping a 6-foot distance from others.
The disease can spread through droplets released “when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who are nearby can breathe in those droplets and get sick.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Shopper spits on worker – then does it a day later in coronavirus dispute, PA cops say."
