The man without a mask causes a stir in Northampton Co. Wegmans. The video of the incident reaches social networks.


A video of an unmasked man shopping at Wegmans in Hanover Township, Northampton County and shouting profanity when a masked boss and store manager approached the presence of the police and images of the incident spread across social media .

A female patron uploaded a video of the episode to a cell phone on Twitter, where it has been viewed more than 44,000 times on Twitter alone. The male pattern, who was wearing a green MASH shirt, approached the unmasked pattern claims in the video in which he was spit on by the unmasked pattern. He says in the video: “He is walking here without a mask on. He is disobeying state orders. He spits at me.

“Honestly, I’m sick of it,” says the masked pattern in the video. “You know, this is for anyone who sees this … (wear) … masks … you know, it’s a piece of cloth.”

Governor Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Rachel Levine expanded an earlier order to use masks on Wednesday that had only been applied to businesses. Now, facial coatings must potentially be used almost anywhere outside the home, with immediate effectiveness, to stop the spread of COVID-19. The order specifically defines a facial covering as “a covering of the nose and mouth that is secured to the head with ties, straps, or loops over the ears or wrapped around the underside.” Acceptable alternatives include scarves, scarves, shirts, sweatshirts, or towels.

There are no appointments for noncompliance, depending on the state. The police have not been instructed to enforce this particular measure, as they have been for companies.

Colonial regional police said Thursday that it is difficult to enforce those recommendations. In this case, neither Wegmans nor any customer of the store have filed charges and no one has been charged in the June 28 incident, according to the colonial regional police.

Colonial regional police were called to the store by the male manager seen in the video around 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Police said they found the unmasked customer outside the store that showed an officer that he had a mask in his pocket but that the strap was broken, the reason he was not wearing the mask while shopping, police said.

The unmasked patron informed police that the masked patron who allegedly called him an expletive approached him. Then an argument ensued because the client was not wearing a mask, police said. A store manager at one point placed a shopping cart between the two because he feared the safety of other customers, according to police.

The manager asked the unmasked customer to leave the store and refused, police said. It was then that the manager notified authorities, police said.

Police said they found no evidence to support the charges of the unmasked man spitting on another client.

Tracy Van Auker, a Wegmans spokeswoman, called the incident a police matter and did not respond to further requests for comment. She released this statement about the store’s mask policy:

“Customers are required to cover their faces while shopping at our stores in accordance with local or state mandates. We are focused on complying with these mandates, keeping the health and safety of our employees and customers as a priority, and that includes minimizing the probability of conflict in our stores. Unless we refuse entry to our stores, we are doing everything we can to educate our customers about the mandate and emphasize the importance of voluntary compliance to keep them and everyone around them safe. We have implemented a series of social distancing measures in all of our stores and follow CDC guidelines, which recommend that people cover their faces when they are in public to help curb the spread of the virus. “

Thursday’s efforts to reach the customer who filmed the video of the meeting were unsuccessful.

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann can be contacted at [email protected].