Call us skeptical, but we suspect some area newspapers might have fallen victim to a hoax, or fake news as we’re now supposed to call it, in the case of the offended, unnamed Mexican-American shopper at a Hobby Lobby in Longmont.
According to newspaper reports, after Trump was elected, a woman heard from another woman a story that was so terrible we are just now hearing about it.
Seems the mysterious woman that no reporter has actually interviewed or verified the existence of, was shopping at the store with her husband and two daughters and asked a staff member where to find an item.
“Trump won the election, I don’t have to help you,” the sales staff allegedly replied.
The response made the children cry and upset the woman shopper who we are told was also pregnant in her third trimester.
At first, the letter writer says she didn’t want to believe it, but heard other stories “about people who embrace racist and hateful values acting more emboldened and open with their hate, but here was an example in our home town of Longmont.”
So, she wrote a letter to the Boulder Daily Camera and reporters have jumped on the story.
Not to verify it, but to demand explanations from Hobby Lobby. They won’t tolerate discrimination, the company responds, and are investigating the complaint. They’ve also asked the customer to whom this happened to contact them.
There appears to be a heightened state of Trump hysteria in Longmont, where police and prosecutors have held two meetings urging residents to report incidents of post-election harassment, or discrimination in the name of Trump.
A sort of Trumphunt. The letter writer may have been told such a thing happened and truly believes it, or she may be a provocateur.
We don’t know, because real news let us down by spreading the story with a lot of emotion, but without the actual facts.