Agoura Hills Store Manager Assaulted Over Mask Order

AGOURA HILLS, CA — After months of mask orders, some customers are at the end of their rope, and it's turning violent.

The DIY Home Center on Roadside Drive in Agoura Hills has hosted a number of angry customers who curse out employees who ask them to wear masks. Manager Michele Borowski says that on Dec. 13, a customer bit her, scratched her, tried to run her over with her car, and dug her nails into another employee.

Borowski said that one customer expressed concern that another in front of her in line had pulled her mask below her chin. When the cashier asked the woman to cover her face, she grew extremely angry, and ripped off her mask, knocking off an earring in the process.

Borowski was called down, and the situation escalated. "She had some choice words for me, she put her hand in my face, and at that point I asked her leave the store," Borowski said. "The cashier came and said, wait, you dropped your earring, and when she tried to give her her earring, the woman grabbed her arm, dug her nails into her arm, and wouldn't let go."

The cashier yelled out that the woman was hurting her. Borowski said that she separated the two women, and walked the screaming customer outside.

"She was yelling at me the whole time, and while she was doing so at that point she ripped my mask off, scratching my face, she grabbed my jaw, drew blood, and then she turned and bit me," Borowski recalled.

As Borowski attempted to get the woman's license plate number, she said that the woman tried to back into her with her truck several times. "She knew I was standing there," Borowski said. "She backed up, then stopped and backed up again, and was using her vehicle to move me out of the way."

Borowski said that she drove off, and almost hit a nearby man calling the police. Borowski was soon rushed to a nearby emergency room, where she received tetanus shots.

According to Borowski, the woman has been identified and arrested. She has also been banned for life from all DIY stores. The Malibu-Lost Hills Sheriff has not returned Patch's call for comment.

While this event may be the most extreme, Borowski said that many customers have bristled when told to wear masks. "We have people that come in with so-called notes from their doctors saying that they don't have to wear a mask, we have people that come in reciting the Constitution to us, we have people that think that they are above having to wear a mask and it doesn't apply to them," she said.

Last Thursday, Borowski said a man threw a hinge at a manager who asked him to wear a mask. Borowski said that he cursed the manager out and ran out quickly, and store employees took down his license plate and called the police.

"We don't make the rules, but we have to follow them so we can stay open and people have a place to shop," Borowski said.

DIY is not the only place where mask rules have unleashed aggression. YouTube is now replete with videos of customers refusing to wear masks. A woman went on a screaming tirade at a North Hollywood Trader Joe's in June after refusing to wear a mask, while a woman called 911 in October after a Palm Springs pet store denied her entry because she wasn't wearing a mask.

Closer to home, shoving matches erupted at a controversial Christmas caroling event in Thousand Oaks led by actor Kirk Cameron, while Cronies Sports Bar and Grill made national news for refusing to comply with the county's outdoor dining ban.

Have you seen any customers react angrily after being told to wear a mask? Email michael.wittner@patch.com.