A man at was filmed Monday yelling and threatening shoppers at a Costco in Fort Myers, Florida, reportedly after an elderly woman asked him why he wasn't wearing a mask. Clad in a "Running the world since 1776" tee shirt, the man puffs up his chest, balls his fists and yells "I FEEL THREATENED!" while belligerently advancing on the person filming.
Florida man at Fort Myers Costco in "Running the World Since 1776" shirt flips out on elderly woman who asked him to wear a mask and man who defended her #BecauseFlorida (via @profjaffar) pic.twitter.com/PDOvi33qHK
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) July 7, 2020
The clip posted to social media shows the man accusing the shoppers of "harassing" him at the Gulf Coast Town Center warehouse.
"I'm not harassing you," the person filming replies, "you're coming close to me."
"I feel threatened!" the man shouts, clenching his fists and advancing toward the camera. "Back up! Threaten me again! Back the fuck up, put your fucking phone down."
The person filming stops at this point. The man was "escorted out of the store" by Costco staff, according to the person who posted the video to Twitter.
'To give Costco the credit, they escorted him out and made me wait inside and monitored him until he left and then they sent someone with me to the car to make sure I'm okay.'
Posters on social media speculated that the man yelling "I feel threatened!", despite being the aggressor, is an attempt to pre-emtively invoke Florida's "stand your ground" law. This law allows the use of deadly force if one is threatened or attacked in public and imposes no duty to retreat.
Florida has no mask mandate, but Fort Myers does.
UPDATE: The man has been identified as a local insurance salesman; his employer announced on Facebook that it has fired him.
