Bucks County businesses claim woman, kids refused to put on masks in stores
FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. - Two Bucks County businesses claim a woman and her kids walked into their stores without masks and refused to put them on, touched items, then got hostile when approached.
”When I get out of my car, do I have to remember to put it on? Yeah, I always go back to my car because I forgot it,” Christine Jaslar said.
Even for nurse Christine Jaslar, it can be hard to remember to mask-up. And, owner of Fairless Hills Garden Center, Gary Steinberg, says they get that.
When a woman with her six children showed up maskless Tuesday morning, caught on camera perusing and touching items, Steinberg says they gave her the benefit of the doubt.
Following the state mask mandate, he says three employees polite requests over 25 minutes to ask her and the older children to put one on were met with hostility, including with the cashier who did not feel comfortable ringing her up for a small purchase of command strips.
“The lady became very irate. She called her all sorts of names, a communist,” Steinberg said.
“The kids were all over the place, touching all the food. She said we were being discriminatory against her,” Matthew Taylor, owner of Fairless Hills Produce Center.
In the same shopping center Tuesday, Taylor said two of his employees, had a similar run-in with the woman and children inside his store.
Finally, he says a manager persuaded her to go back to her car for curbside pick-up.
“There were many other people in the store. A pregnant woman thanked us,” Taylor added.
Steinberg says his landlord had to eventually confronted her outside the store and asked her to leave.
He says they got hate mail based on the woman’s account of what happened. Steinberg says they posted their side on Facebook to warn other business owners.
He says this comes down to nothing more than following the rules to stay open and keep everyone safe.
“We’re not out to take anyone’s right away or anything and if you have a medical condition, that’s fine, just tell us and we can even shop for you,” Steinberg explained.
In a text message conversation with FOX 29, the maskless woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said the garden center’s employees never offered to shop for her and she has accepted that offer elsewhere.
She claims she was accosted by a man in the parking lot and she says the since-deleted Facebook post was slanderous and misleading and they should be ashamed.
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