She says the angry encounter started in response to a customer who harassed her because she wasn't wearing a mask.
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"Right away he started using obscenities at me, saying 'f you,'" she says.
The woman, who asked ABC7 not to use her name, says she called a Trader Joe's store in Toluca Lake and was given permission by the manager to come in and shop without a facial covering. But she claims she mistakenly went to North Hollywood where another manager told her she would make an exception allowing her to buy groceries without a mask on that day only.
The confrontation happened when she started shopping.
"I did what any normal human being, a woman, would do if she was being harassed by a man, not knowing if he's a crazy man, so I started yelling in self defense," she says.
The woman says she does not regret what she said during the encounter.
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"Unlike whatever lies they are putting out there, I had no political agenda. I had nothing. They might use whatever else I said later in my anger, it doesn't matter. What happened to me should not be happening to anyone else," she says.
The woman declined to give any details about her medical condition.
ABC7 reached out to Trader Joe's about this story and is waiting for a response.
Woman gets upset after asked to wear face mask at Trader Joe's in North Hollywood
Woman gets upset after asked to wear face mask at Trader Joe's in North Hollywood
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