Transsexual Sues Brooklyn Department Store for Air Conditioner Assault

Lucky S. Michaels, a well-known New York activist and member of the trans community, is suing Bobby’s Department Store, a go-to for housewares in the Ditmas Park section of Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Michaels has filed a civil suit in Kings County Supreme Court. In it, she claims an employee at Bobby’s assaulted her with the same air conditioner she had purchased minutes before.

The victim’s lawyer, John Lonuzzi, tells the New York Post that the store manager at Bobby’s demanded to see her receipt as she carried the heavy unit out of the store. But when she told him he’d have to grab the receipt out of her pocket, the store manager — and another employee who had joined them— allegedly flew into a rage.

Michaels claims one of them punched her in the jaw. She also claims they knocked the air conditioner out of her arms and threw it at her, causing a serious ankle injury,

“They were offended by the suggestion that they would reach into her pocket to get the receipt,” Lonuzzi tells the Post. He says his client “feels that she was abused due to her flamboyant appearance.”

The store manager, Lionet Drob, was reportedly arrested at the time for misdemeanor assault.

When Patch called Bobby’s to speak with the manager about the lawsuit, a store employee said, “Leon is unavailable at the moment.”