LINCOLN, Neb. — A maskless woman seen in a widely viewed video following a mother and daughter at a Nebraska grocery store and coughing on them repeatedly was fired from her job.
Video of the Sept. 3 incident shows a woman, later identified as Janene Hoskovec, of Arizona, confronting the mother and daughter, who were wearing masks, the Kansas City Star reported.
“She asked if I’ve had a vaccine and said that my kid and I don’t need to wear masks because we look young and healthy,” the mother, who has not been identified, wrote on social media. “There were several other people around wearing masks but for some reason she chose to pick on me and my kid.”
Here is the whole rundown from my daughters mom. They didn’t seem to do anything about the situation other than try to “break it up” pic.twitter.com/7o9kEvUF87
— RoBeastRo (@RoBeastRo) September 7, 2021
The city of Lincoln has a mask requirement indoors and Lancaster County is considered high-risk for the spread of COVID-19, KRON reported.
Hoskovec is seen smiling while coughing without covering her mouth repeatedly. She then blames her allergies. An employee later intervenes. Hoskovec walks off but later followed the mother and daughter around the store. They cut their shopping short and checked out.
“She laughed and kept saying ‘Look at you, it’s so cute how scared you are,’” the mother said on social media. “By this time I was absolutely livid, trying my best to hold it together in front of my kid. I didn’t finish my shopping, instead I went to the self-checkout to pay for my stuff.”
After Hoskovec was identified, her employer, SAP, a company that makes business software, suffered backlash and fired her.
“The health and safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work are of utmost concern to us. We are taking the matter of an SAP employee incident very seriously and investigating the situation,” SAP said Wednesday in a statement. “We have reviewed the incident and can confirm that the individual in question no longer works for SAP.”
The health and safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work are of utmost concern to us. We are taking the matter of an SAP employee incident very seriously and investigating the situation.
— SAP (@SAP) September 8, 2021
Lincoln police said the victim has not filed a complaint, which would be needed to file criminal charges, KMTV reported.
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