An anti-masker launched into an angry tirade at a Subway sandwich shop after staff refused to serve him.
The heated exchange between a customer and ‘sandwich artist’ at a Subway store in the US was captured on video that went viral on Twitter this week.
A fellow patron began recording while waiting in line behind an unidentified man who stepped up to the counter without a mask – despite a local face covering requirement inside businesses.
The female employee behind the counter calmly explains that she can’t serve him as the man repeatedly shouts at her to ignore the health department’s warnings.
‘I want my sandwich!’ he cries.
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An anti-masker was dubbed ‘Sandwich Karen’ after video showed him launching into an angry tirade at a Subway store in the US because staff refused to serve him
The man repeatedly screamed: ‘I want my sandwich!’ as other patrons patiently waited in line
The video opens with the employee telling the mask-less man: ‘The health department will shut my business down.’
‘The health department’s over!’ the man responds with frustration. ‘Don’t listen to them!’
The employee maintains her composure as she pleads with the man to hear her, while he insists that she ignore the rules and give him what he came for.
He furiously grabs a bag of chips off a display and says: ‘I have freedom, I have rights, serve the people!’
‘I have the right not to serve you,’ the woman replies, placing her hands on her chest in exasperation.
The man raises his voice even louder and shouts: ‘I’m not forcing you! You’re forcing me!’
The video opens with the employee telling the mask-less man that she can’t serve him without a mask because: ‘The health department will shut my business down.’ He replies: ‘The health department’s over!’ the man responds with frustration. ‘Don’t listen to them!’
The employee repeatedly tells the man to leave as he threatens to call the police on her
The employee points to the door urging the man to move out of the way as he threatens to ‘call someone’ to complain.
‘Call who you need to, it’s the law from the health department,’ the employee says.
‘You’re breaking the law, you’re following them, I’m not,’ the man shoots back. ‘I want my sandwich.’
‘Sir, I’m not going to serve you, you need to go,’ the employee insists before the man leans over the counter and shouts even louder: ‘I want my sandwich!’
She asks him one last time to put on a mask, to which he responds: ‘I’m not wearing a mask! I need to breathe!’
When the employee walks away from the counter, the man turns around and looks incredulously at the other compliant customers waiting in line.
‘What’s your f**king problem, wearing your f**king mask?’ he yells before throwing a bag of chips at the floor and storming out.
When the employee walks away, the man turns around and looks at the other compliant customers waiting in line, shouting: ‘What’s your f**king problem, wearing your f**king mask?’
He launches a bag of chips at the ground before finally storming out of the store
The video was posted on Monday by @davenewworld_2 and has already racked up more than 100,000 views as users ridiculed the irate anti-masker – dubbing him ‘Sandwich Karen’.
‘To this day, I still don’t understand why people have a problem wearing a mask,’ one user wrote.
Another added: ‘I know it’s been said numerous times bit these people don’t get paid enough to have to put up with this kind of abuse.’
A third critic asserted: ‘People refusing to mask in public should be denied health insurance coverage at the very least and medical care as well.’
The video was one of dozens that have gone viral over the course of the coronavirus pandemic as citizens balk at widespread mask mandates and insist that the requirements are an infringement on their freedoms.
Earlier this month a group of anti-maskers stormed a Target store in Florida and demanded that fellow customers join them in defying the rules.
In South Dakota, a sewage technician was wrestled out of a school board meeting because he refused to put on a face covering.