Maskless woman loses job after coughing on masked mom, daughter in Nebraska store
_fitted.png "A woman seen on viral video coughing on a mother and daughter wearing masks at a Lincoln, Nebraska grocery store has been fired from her job.")
An unmasked woman seen on video following a masked mother and daughter around a Nebraska grocery store, and coughing on them, earlier this month has lost her job after her employer found out.
Video of the Sep. 3 incident at a Lincoln, Nebraska, grocery store enraged many online, spurring some to try and identify the woman involved.
The father of the girl shared videos of the incident on Twitter and said the woman “instigated the whole thing. Picked a mother/child to harass.”
The woman, later identified as Arizona resident Janene Hoskovec, Heavy.com reported, can be seen coughing on the mom and daughter while one of them records with their cellphone.
“It’s my allergies, I have allergies,” Hoskovec says, while arguing that masks aren’t necessary.
According to a Reddit post by the mother, Hoskovec seemed to target them at random, as many others were also masked at the store, Heavy reported. At one point, a store employee tries to intervene, and essentially separates Hoskovec from the mom and girl — but the woman started following them again, the post said.
“Look at you,” Hoskovec said, the post read. “Look how scared you are.”
Eventually the mother and daughter checked out without finishing their shopping, according to the post.
Social media users discovered that Hoskovec worked for SAP, a business software production company, and reached out to the company en masse.
“The health and safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work are of utmost concern to us,” SAP said in a statement Wednesday. “We are taking the matter of an SAP employee incident very seriously and investigating the situation.”
Hours later, the company shared another update: “We have reviewed the incident and can confirm that the individual in question no longer works for SAP.”
In response to rising cases due to the delta variant, masks are required to be worn indoors in Lincoln County, according to the City of Lincoln’s website.
Lincoln police have not commented on the situation or indicated if any charges are forthcoming.
However, people have landed themselves in legal trouble by coughing on others, and even licking produce, since the pandemic began, McClatchy News reported.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Maskless woman loses job after coughing on masked mom, daughter in Nebraska store."