#Rite Aid worker fired after asking raging customer to leave for not wearing mask

A Pennsylvania Rite Aid worker said she was fired after a raging customer destroyed the store because she’d asked him to leave for not wearing a face mask.

Shift manager Elena Santiago, 40, told the York Daily Record a young man carrying a skateboard came into the York, Pa., chain shortly afternoon on Thursday, Sept. 3.

The man ignored her first two requests that he put on a face covering as required under state law.

She tried to give him one of the masks the store keeps on hand for customers, but the man rudely denied her offer, she said.

“If you’re going to disrespect me, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the store,” she recalled then telling the customer, warning him that she would call the police if he didn’t.

When the man threatened to attack her if she dialed 911, she asked the cashier to call other employees to help with the situation.

The man responded violently, shoving the cashier into a magazine rack, she said.

Security footage shows the man throw store displays to the ground and knock over the cash register.

He is then seen leaving the store and smashes a front window with his board.

Santiago said she was fired days later, on the following Tuesday, and is worried she won’t find new work during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I really don’t understand it,” she said.

“I was fired for defending myself. They’re punishing me for defending myself. I think it’s unfair how they handled it.”

Rite Aid did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Company spokesman Chris Savarese declined to comment to the Daily Record.