In dark corners of the internet, men are goading each other to masturbate in public – and on female shoppers – and post the footage

As she walked the aisles, MR said in an interview, she sensed a man standing close behind her. She turned to confront him and noticed that he was a good six inches taller than her. He was talking in graphic detail about sexual things he wanted to do to her. “You’re so disgusting, get away from me,” she told him, and hurried off to find her friend.

Still, he stayed close, and for a few tense minutes the two of them locked eyes while she waited in line to pay. When at last he left, she thought that was the end of it – until, back outside in the chill of the winter morning, she felt something cold against the back of her leggings.

The man had ejaculated on her.

“I didn’t know how to react. I wanted to kill this man,” said MR, who was 47 at the time, recalling the horror and helplessness she felt as her friend wiped her off with towels. (The Guardian has verified MR’s identity but is not publishing her full name to protect her privacy.)

Hours later, on the advice of a sister who worked in law enforcement, she fished her soiled leggings out of the garbage and took them back to the store to report what had happened. A clerk listened to her account and, not seeming to realize that MR understood Spanish, shouted to a colleague in a backroom: “Tenemos otra.”

“We’ve got another one.”

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
    7·
    20 hours ago

    A year later, with the lawsuit still mired in preliminary motions and no trial date in sight, Greenberg’s research team has dug up 63 officially documented sex crimes in all – fewer than five a year before 2020 and as many as 18 a year since the December 2023 attack on MR. Sixteen involved masturbation or ejaculation. The company’s attempts to disavow this, Greenberg said in an interview, amounted to “a plethora of stupid arguments” and only underlined what she saw as a pattern of poor corporate governance.

    Only 16, hm?

    • stringere@sh.itjust.works
      23·
      18 hours ago

      16 reported cases over a year and a half nationwide

      You refuted their statememt with data that encompasses sex crimes other than the one in this article.

      You then went on to quote the source they likely used for 16 incidents like this one:

      Sixteen involved masturbation or ejaculation.

      Congratulations on being rage baited into attacking people that oppose this disgusting behavior, I guess.

      • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
        2·
        18 hours ago

        No shit, they’re looking at a pattern. Of course journalists are going to dig for similar cases and not just report on this single incident.

        Read the full article before coming at me.

        • stringere@sh.itjust.works
          23·
          18 hours ago

          Yes, there is a pattern of 16 incidents like the one in the article. 63 total, it says. There are 9,064 Dollar Tree stores. That’s a 0.7% occurrence rate.

          Please, stop attacking people for being rational about the rate of occurence.