Okie Karen In Meltdown Over Mask Rule

JULY 9--After repeatedly being told that she was required to wear a face mask inside a Skechers outlet in Oklahoma, an incensed woman threw shoeboxes at a store employee and fled the business, not realizing she left her wallet at the checkout counter.

According to a police report, Marlana Arbaugh, 56, faces a misdemeanor simple assault charge in connection with yesterday morning’s incident at a strip mall in Oklahoma City.

Store workers told cops that Arbaugh entered the Skechers without a face mask, though a sign on the front door “clearly stated that anyone shopping inside the store was required to wear a face mask.”

Employee Kristi Wichert, 34, said she informed Arbaugh about the mask requirement several times, but that Arbaugh ignored her and “selected a couple boxes of shoes.” Arbaugh, Wichert recalled, “was intent on purchasing the shoes and approached the sales counter.”

Wichert again told Arbaugh (seen at right) that she needed to be wearing a mask if she intended to “complete the shoe purchase.” After Wichert suggested that Arbaugh could buy a mask at a nearby Lowe’s store, Arbaugh “got mad and threw the shoe boxes” at the Skechers worker, “striking her in the neck and chest area,” cops report.

As seen above, the tail end of the encounter--which left Wichert with minor injuries to her chest--was recorded by another Skechers worker.

After hitting Wichert with the shoeboxes, Arbaugh left the store and drove away in a Nissan Altima. But she “failed to realize at the time of the assault that she had placed her wallet on the sales counter and left it there,” according to the Oklahoma City Police Department report. Arbaugh’s wallet, which contained her driver’s license, was booked into the police property room.

Wichert signed an assault citation against Arbaugh, who has not been arrested. (2 pages)