Customer told to wear mask at Daly City Safeway pulls knife on workers

in Community/Crime

A mask-less customer at a Safeway store in Daly City “coughed” in the vicinity of an employee who asked her to wear a face covering and later brandished a pocketknife at employees Monday evening, police said.

A Daly City police officer responded to the store just after 6:30 p.m. on a report of a brandishing incident. The employee told the officer she was working at the front register of the self-checkout section when she noticed the suspect, who not only wasn’t wearing a mask but also decided to cut the self-checkout line and begin scanning her items, police said.

After asking the female suspect to get out of line and put on her mask, the female “coughed at/in the vicinity of her” and refused to leave. The suspect continued to complete paying for her items while saying profanities at the employee. As the suspect began leaving the store, she grabbed a pack of gum and threw it at the employee, hitting her in the right shoulder, police said.

The suspect ran out of the store while being pursued by Safeway employees.

“As the female approached her vehicle, she turned around and told everyone to stop following her and pulled out a pocketknife and pointed it in the direction of the employees,” police said. “Everyone stopped following the female, and she left the scene.”

No arrest was announced in connection with the incident.