Maskless 'Karen' fired over coughing video recorded in Nebraska supermarket
A woman who was caught on camera appearing to deliberately cough inside a supermarket without a face mask on, in a city where an indoor mask mandate is in place, is now out of a job.
LINCOLN, Neb. (KRON) -- A woman who was caught on camera appearing to deliberately cough inside a supermarket without wearing a face mask in a Nebraska city where an indoor mask mandate is in place is now out of a job.
It was originally posted to Reddit earlier this week by user Jessabird, who said she was with her kid at a supermarket in Lincoln when the woman allegedly approached them and asked why they were wearing masks.
"She asked if I've had a vaccine and said that my kid and I don't need to wear masks because we look young and healthy. There were several other people around wearing masks but for some reason she chose to pick on me and my kid," Jessabird writes.
In the video, the woman is seen walking towards the video recorder and coughing multiple times in their direction.
KMTV reported Thursday that Lincoln police had not received a complaint from a victim, something that would have been necessary to file charges against the woman. Two online activists known for tracking down people in similar videos identified the woman as an Arizona resident and former employee of German company SAP.
The company issued a statement on Twitter on Wednesday evening saying, "We have reviewed the incident and can confirm that the individual in question no longer works for SAP."
You can watch the interaction in the tweet below, posted by @RoBeastRo, who told KRON that the video was taken by his daughter's mother.
A second tweeted video shows the moments before the woman began coughing. In it, she is heard saying, "I don't need to have [a mask] on, I'm not sick and neither are you."
She then starts coughing openly in the supermarket and says it's her allergies, according to the video.
Jessabird said an employee tried to intervene and the woman walked away, but Jessabird alleges that the woman followed her around the store afterward.
"She laughed and kept saying 'Look at you, it's so cute how scared you are!' By this time I was absolutely livid, trying my best to hold it together in front of my kid. I didn't finish my shopping, instead I went to the self checkout to pay for my stuff," Jessabird said.
The poster said she informed another employee at the checkouts about the woman coughing on her earlier, but left before getting an employee response. Check out the full Reddit post here.
According to the city of Lincoln, Nebraska, where the supermarket is located, everyone is required to wear face masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.
At this time, Lancaster County is considered at "high risk of COVID-19 spread and impact in the community," according to a Sept. 3 update.
KRON4 has reached out to Jessabird for comment.