A man refused to wear a face mask while shopping at a Costco outpost because he “woke up in a free country” — and was then booted from the chain store by an employee, a now-viral clip of the incident shows.
The defiant, shades-but-no-mask-wearing shopper filmed the interaction, which reportedly happened at a Costco in Colorado, and told the employee he wanted to put him on his “3,000-follower Instagram feed.”
“Hi everyone, I work for Costco and I’m asking this member to put on a mask because that is our company policy. So either wear the mask …,” the masked worker, whose badge identified him as Tison, said to the camera in the 36-second clip, which has received millions of views on Twitter.
The rebellious patron then turned the camera on himself, saying, “And I’m not doing it because I woke up in a free country.”
That’s when Tison took matters into his own hands, and told the man to “have a great day” as the employee pulled the customer’s paper towel-loaded cart away from him.
“So you’re gonna take this cart from me full of stuff?” the shopper asked, to which Tison replied, “You are no longer welcome here in our warehouse. You need to leave, thank you very much.”
As Tison walked away with the shopping cart, the eighty-sixed consumer said, “He’s gonna take the cart away because he’s a p—y little bitch.”
“There he goes walking away with all my stuff, there he goes because I’m not a f–king sheep,” he added.
Like many stores, Costco implemented a policy due to the coronavirus pandemic that all members and guests must wear a face covering at all times while in the store.
As the video went viral this week, Twitter users hailed Tison as a “hero” and demanded that Costco give the employee “a raise.”
A Twitter user claiming to be Tison thanked commenters for their support.
“People of Twitter thank you for all of the support,” @Thoff821 tweeted. “I was just trying to protect our employees and our members #Tison.”