Would Knocking A Woman's Wig Off Be Considered An Assault?

Lee

Senior Member
Location
Chatham, Ontario
At first glance most of us would say Yes, it is an assault. But this could only happen at Costco and it happened today and I witnessed it.

Costco lets seniors and front line workers in early to avoid the lineup. They have two separate lines with security monitoring. Now here comes a young woman, no way was she a senior, more like mid to late 30's sporting a ratty grey wig that looked like it came from a thrift store. Her way of not waiting in the long line.

Bold as brass she attempts to get a cart only to be stopped and asked to show proof of age. No proof but she thinks pointing out her grey hair is going to be like waving a magic wand. The man tells her again that he needs ID and she again points to the wig. Security says that could be a wig. Next thing I know the man in front of me reached with his cane, speared the wig and proudly waved his prize and in a loud voice says "yup, it's a wig all right"

You would think the lady would have been embarrassed enough to slink off, but no, instead starts screaming that she was assaulted. To make matters worse or actually funnier I think, the cane guy still has the wig caught on the prongy end of the cane and is waving it in the air just out of reach.

As much as I wanted to stick around for the end of it I instead thought I better scram into the store before the cops were called and I would have to give a statement.

Only at Costco eh?

Your thoughts though, would this be an assault?
 

The definition of assault varies by jurisdiction, but is generally defined as intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. Physical injury is not required.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/ass...sault varies,Physical injury is not required.

Assault | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute

Use of the cane could be construed as imminent harmful or offensive contact. Who knows maybe this is exactly what the woman hoped for .
 
In general, yes, this would be an assault, but this one is just too funny. If some alert phone user happened to be standing on that line, the video of this incident would have gone viral by now.

But why "only in Costco?" This could have happened at any store that lets seniors in ahead of the general public.
 
At first glance most of us would say Yes, it is an assault. But this could only happen at Costco and it happened today and I witnessed it.

Costco lets seniors and front line workers in early to avoid the lineup. They have two separate lines with security monitoring. Now here comes a young woman, no way was she a senior, more like mid to late 30's sporting a ratty grey wig that looked like it came from a thrift store. Her way of not waiting in the long line.

Bold as brass she attempts to get a cart only to be stopped and asked to show proof of age. No proof but she thinks pointing out her grey hair is going to be like waving a magic wand. The man tells her again that he needs ID and she again points to the wig. Security says that could be a wig. Next thing I know the man in front of me reached with his cane, speared the wig and proudly waved his prize and in a loud voice says "yup, it's a wig all right"

You would think the lady would have been embarrassed enough to slink off, but no, instead starts screaming that she was assaulted. To make matters worse or actually funnier I think, the cane guy still has the wig caught on the prongy end of the cane and is waving it in the air just out of reach.

As much as I wanted to stick around for the end of it I instead thought I better scram into the store before the cops were called and I would have to give a statement.

Only at Costco eh?

Your thoughts though, would this be an assault?
if he only touched the wig i don't see how. lmao!
 
Only a stupid person would do what the guy did. Yes, it's an assault. Just reaching out with the cane is already an assault before the cane even touched her. Some people learn that the hard way - when it's too late.
A cane is considered a weapon. Anyone who shoves it at someone is really stupid & would be subject to injuries from the other person; let alone touching someone's head with it. He's a lucky fool she didn't hurt him.
 
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Only a stupid person would do what the guy did. Yes, it's an assault. Just reaching out with the cane is already an assault before the cane even touched her. Some people learn that the hard way - when it's too late.
*Sigh* I just asked my brother-in-law, who's a police officer, and he agrees with you.

As for using gray hair to prove senior citizen status, my hair was fully gray by the time I was 28...
 
Only a stupid person would do what the guy did. Yes, it's an assault. Just reaching out with the cane is already an assault before the cane even touched her. Some people learn that the hard way - when it's too late.
A cane is considered a weapon. Anyone who shoves it at someone is really stupid & would be subject to injuries from the other person; let alone touching someone's head with it. He's a lucky fool she didn't hurt him.
I rather think that is technically assault and battery. You don't have to touch someone to have committed assault, when there is physical contact it becomes assault and battery. Given that he had no status in the store in that he was not an employee, I think his intervention was entirely gratuitous and most courts would not take kindly to his action.
 
At first glance most of us would say Yes, it is an assault. But this could only happen at Costco and it happened today and I witnessed it.

Costco lets seniors and front line workers in early to avoid the lineup. They have two separate lines with security monitoring. Now here comes a young woman, no way was she a senior, more like mid to late 30's sporting a ratty grey wig that looked like it came from a thrift store. Her way of not waiting in the long line.

Bold as brass she attempts to get a cart only to be stopped and asked to show proof of age. No proof but she thinks pointing out her grey hair is going to be like waving a magic wand. The man tells her again that he needs ID and she again points to the wig. Security says that could be a wig. Next thing I know the man in front of me reached with his cane, speared the wig and proudly waved his prize and in a loud voice says "yup, it's a wig all right"

You would think the lady would have been embarrassed enough to slink off, but no, instead starts screaming that she was assaulted. To make matters worse or actually funnier I think, the cane guy still has the wig caught on the prongy end of the cane and is waving it in the air just out of reach.

As much as I wanted to stick around for the end of it I instead thought I better scram into the store before the cops were called and I would have to give a statement.

Only at Costco eh?

Your thoughts though, would this be an assault?
That is hilarious 😂
 

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