Woman attacks Korean store owners after card declined, sparks hate crime investigation
Thomas McDonald
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An irate woman went on a brutal rampage inside a husband and wife’s beauty supply store after her debit card was declined at checkout.
“Watching your parents get thrust around and dragged around the store they worked so hard for…I couldn’t finish watching the video obviously,” the victim’s son David Jo told local media.
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The rampage, caught on surveillance video, started after a black female customer tried to purchase various items. However, her card was declined. She tried to argue with the store owners about letting her leave with the unpaid-for items shortly before lunging towards the husband and wife shop owners.
“May I please have my items, please? I will leave and get out of your hair. You will never see me in your store again,” the unidentified woman says in a cellphone video recorded by one of the owners, who immigrated to the Cleveland area from South Korea 25 years ago.
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The owner replied, “We cannot give you anything because it’s not cleared.”
“My father explained it to her very clearly that the reason you’re not able to walk out with the product is there’s no money in your account. The card was denied, therefore, obviously, you can’t take the product out of the store, and that seemed to set her off,” Jo said.
The woman leaps over the counter and attacks the owners, smashing multiple display cases. She knocks the man to the ground, and drags the woman by her hair.
“I just saw my mom today since it happened and she’s all bruised up, her hair’s been pulled out, she has bruises all over her body. My dad’s mouth was all bloodied up,” Jo added.
Jo said his family has owned Chic Plus Beauty Supply for 5 years and has never experienced anything like this before.
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“I don’t think anybody expects their parents to get brutally beaten like that and them having to watch a video and not being able to do anything about it. It’s pretty tough; I felt very helpless,” he said.
The Cleveland police are investigating the attack and said that the woman will face felony assault and vandalism charges when found. The department is also investigating whether this incident is a hate crime.