‘I stood in total shock’: Woman says stranger coughed in face, claimed to have COVID-19 in Surrey
Posted April 2, 2020 7:27 am.
Last Updated April 2, 2020 7:28 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – As the pandemic brings out the best in some people, it appears to be bringing out the worst in others.
A woman in Surrey says a stranger claiming to have COVID-19 coughed in her face on purpose, all because she reminded the person to social distance.
“Never thought a person would ever do such a terrible terrible thing,” Kimberley Wadman writes in a Facebook post in the Clayton Heights Community Page. “Now will not leave my home […] for at least 14 days.”
Wadman says the shocking ordeal happened Tuesday evening as she was walking her dog near 196 Street and 68A Avenue. She says she was standing on a grassy part of the pathway, waiting for her dog to its business when a woman walked up with her dog and stood only a foot away.
“I said, you realize we are suppose to be 6 feet apart?” Wadman says in the post. “She say, excuse me? I repeated we all need to be at least 6 feet apart 2 meters She yells what do you think you and your dog are the only ones on this grass?”
Wadman says after she tried to explain to the woman that she was only trying to protect the both of them, the stranger coughed inches away from her face.
“When I put my back to her she came up from behind me and cough right at the side of my head within only inches. I stood in total shock as she walks by and yells ya..well I’ve had Corona for the last 2 weeks!” Wadman adds.
She ran home to wash her clothes and shower, adding she was shaking in shock as she made the Facebook post.
Wadman tells the Cloverdale Reporter she reported the incident to the police but was told there wasn’t much that could be done without witnesses or details about the woman.
It’s not the first time someone has apparently coughed on someone — or threatened to — during the pandemic.
Earlier this week, London Drugs said some customers have threatened to spit or cough on staff at various locations. Last month, two Metro Vancouver transit officers went into self-isolation as a precaution after a man intentionally coughed on them during an arrest.
Meanwhile, out east, two men in New Brunswick were charged last week after allegedly coughing on neighbours in a rooming house on purpose. Nova Scotia RCMP says people claiming to have COVID-19 have been threatening to cough on police officers over the past several days, too.
