#Florida man in viral Costco incident says he gets ‘claustrophobic’ wearing a mask

The Florida Costco shopper who went ballistic after an elderly woman asked him to put on a face mask said he refused because he’s “claustrophobic” and has trouble wearing one, according to a report.

Speaking for the first time since the viral video emerged, Daniel Maples — who lost his job at an insurance firm over the outburst — said the face covering causes him “distress,” according to the Fort Myers News-Press.

“After a while, I start to feel like I’m suffocating. I get claustrophobic and that’s an issue for me,” Maples said. “I prefer not to wear the mask. It’s something that causes me a lot of distress.”

Maples — who said he’s received hundreds of threatening texts, emails and voicemails since the June 27 incident — denied shouting at an elderly woman, saying his anger was directed at other shoppers.

“I remember someone saying something to me about ‘I have cancer, I have cancer.’ I replied, ‘Well, my father died of cancer,’” he said. “I didn’t understand why she was yelling at me about that.”

He added, “I never yelled at an old lady.”

Tense unrecorded interactions with other folks in the store — including people who confronted him for not wearing a mask — led up to the confrontation and made him feel threatened, he said.

“It was like the mob was gathering around me and I felt threatened,” Maples said. “In that moment, I was scared. I’m not a fighter, I’m not a person that deals with this on a daily basis,” he said. “I don’t know how to manage this.”

After the incident, Maples said, he was asked to leave the store by a Costco employee and he did so willingly.

He said the heated footage doesn’t represent who he really is.

“All I’m really asking for is a second chance at a first impression for people to know the real me and not take 15 seconds of my life and turn me into a demon,” Maples said.

Last week, the person who posted the video to Twitter told The Post that Maples yelled at an elderly woman who asked him to put on a mask.

A man then stepped in to defend her while citing the number of new coronavirus cases in Florida from the previous day.

“You’re harassing me! I feel threatened!” Maples is seen in the footage raging at the man shooting the video.