Bank Manager: Customer 'Ambushed' Me Over Mask

The heated climate over mask mandates kicked up a notch at a Wells Fargo branch earlier this month, when a California bank manager says he was ambushed and beaten by a customer who didn't want to comply with the bank's mask rules. The bank manager, IDed only as "A," tells the San Luis Obispo Tribune that the Sept. 3 incident began when the 40-something customer entered the Grover Beach bank sans face covering, and A asked him to don a mask. The customer "responded aggressively," A says, noting that he then offered the customer one of the bank's masks. That seemed to tick off the customer even more, A says, adding that the customer called him a f---in' sp---," and said, "I better not catch you outside."

The man left, but A says the customer attacked him in the parking lot hours later when A's shift ended. A's wife tells the paper that her husband ended up in the ER with a concussion and scratches to his head, face, and hands. "It's crazy," A says. "The guy went home, he plotted, he laid in wait, he ambushed me." Police say they're investigating the incident as battery and a possible hate crime. This isn't the first such incident of over-the-top mask pushback. Newsweek notes another recent case from August, when a man who was asked by workers at a Canadian Dairy Queen to wear a mask was caught on video urinating in front of them in response. (More face masks stories.)