A regular laundry day turned into a legal matter for a Black man in Auburn, Maine, as he confronted an employee about ruining his expensive clothes.
The incident, recorded by the Meta glasses the man was wearing and uploaded to TikTok last week (July 17), escalated to the point where cops had to get involved.
He claimed the video was the only thing that saved him from going behind bars.
“Would have been in jail if it wasn’t for these Meta glasses,” he wrote in the caption of his TikTok video.
A man’s Meta glasses recorded his heated exchange with a laundromat employee
Image credits: _shizzyshaxk/TikTok
The TikTok user said he had been going to the laundromat for 5-6 years.
The video starts with the user approaching the woman as she sprays and wipes down the washing machines, including the one the man was using.
“Can you please not wipe this down while my clothes are in here?” the man pleaded. “Why do you have to do this every time I’m here… Can you please wait until my stuff finishes?”
Image credits: _shizzyshaxk/TikTok
The woman answered that she wipes “every machine,” and moved on to the next, saying, “Excuse me, thank you.”
“Every time I’m here, you’re just doing this stuff with the spray,” the man countered. “You sprayed a thousand-dollar worth of dry cleaning with that same stuff.”
Image credits: _shizzyshaxk/TikTok
“I’ve never taken in your dry cleaning. You’re confused,” the employee responded, as she continued wiping down the machines.
“Ma’am, you know my clothes,” he said. “You do that on purpose. Can you stop doing stuff to antagonize me, please? You don’t have to do that stuff while the machine is operating. Are you that miserable?”
When the woman continued to deny knowing him, the man called her a “weird a** lady.”
He apologized to another patron, who was there with a young child, for cursing, prompting the employee to mention that his “girlfriend” had also done the same during a previous visit.
Cops were called after the woman accused the man of hitting her in the face
Image credits: _shizzyshaxk/TikTok
At one point in the video, the employee returned to the machine the man was using, and he attempted to stop her from spraying.
It is not clear in the video if any physical contact occurred, but the woman cried out, “You hit me in the face! Get the f**k off me.”
Image credits: _shizzyshaxk/TikTok
A second employee stepped in as the first one walked away.
The video then cuts to two police officers, who were seemingly called to the laundromat by the employees.
The cops issued the man a “No Trespass” citation, which he also showed in the Meta glasses footage.
Image credits: _shizzyshaxk/TikTok
Under U.S. law, the notice serves as a formal legal warning to the recipient, instructing them to stay away from the property.
Atlanta Black Star reported that the laundromat banned the man for life. But he believes it could have been much worse if he hadn’t had the recording as proof.
Meta Smart Glasses capture first-person point-of-view photos and videos hands-free at the press of a button or with a voice command, and can record for up to 3 minutes on most models.
According to the BBC, the feature recently got the device banned by Monopoly Events, the leading organizer of UK comic-cons, at all their conventions.
The internet was divided over whether the argument was the man’s fault
Image credits: _shizzyshaxk/TikTok
Netizens couldn’t agree on their opinions over the argument. Some claimed the employee deliberately targeted the man, while others thought he overreacted to the situation.
“She knew exactly what she was doing,” one person said. Another wrote, “She was being childish and petty to pi** him off.”
“She went from ‘I don’t know you’ to ‘you and your girlfriend,’ yeah, it was intentional,” claimed a third. A fourth wrote, “She was aggressive toward him. Shut her down permanently.”
Image credits: Point Normal/Unsplash (Not the actual photo)
A few users were confused about how spraying the outside of the machine would affect the clothes inside, and some pointed out that the spray liquid was getting into the detergent slots.
“Bro. You’re being emotional and confrontational for no reason,” one person opined. “As a man, cite the problem, give a solution, and move on. The back-and-forth discord is pointless and foolish.”
Another said, “He sounds like a whiner. He’s DEFINITELY the problem.”
Many viewers said he should have switched laundromats if the problem had persisted for a while.
“It may be convenient, but why keep giving her your money and arguing with her?” one said.
Another wrote, “Why waste your time arguing? Be proactive and find another laundry.”
“I would go somewhere else.” The internet was divided over the man’s argument with the laundromat employee
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