Coronavirus Update : Women Fight Over Toilet Paper
It looked practically apocalyptic Down Under as women tussled over toilet paper.
Viral video shows three women in a wild fight in an Australian store sparked by a mother and her daughter hoarding toilet paper amid panic over the coronavirus.
#BREAKING: A scuffle broke out at a Woolworths in Chullora this morning with patrons coming to blows over toilet paper, forcing employees to intervene. Bankstown police attended the scene and no charges have been laid. #9News pic.twitter.com/9TmDAStb9D
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) March 7, 2020
“I just want one pack!” demanded one woman as she confronted the pair who had a shopping trolley piled high with bathroom supplies in a Woolworths in western Sydney.
“No not one pack,” the 60-year-old mother of the pair said sternly in the video viewed more than 200,000 times after being tweeted Saturday by 9News.
The trio had been seen grabbing each other, trading blows, then blaming each other for starting Saturday’s brawl
“Are you joking? Are you f—ing joking?” one woman was heard asking after onlookers helped break apart the fight, with a staff member telling them, “Look what you’re doing. You’re fighting over tissues.”
The video sparked disgust — and much mirth — online. “Imagine what would happen in an actual apocalypse,” Mr Gaanz asked in reply, while Cleetus Van Damme said, “We’ll discover a cure for coronavirus before a cure for stupid.”
Police later told 9News that the mom and her 23-year-old daughter were both criminally charged. A 49-year-old woman also involved spoke to police but was not charged, the station said, describing her as the victim but saying she was not injured.
She appears to have been in the right, too — with Woolworths saying it had a four-pack limit on toilet paper amid a national shortage sparked by frenzied panic buying over fears of lengthy quarantines to come.
“It’s just bad behaviour by people that are panicking, and there’s no need for that panic,” acting Inspector Andrew New told 9News.
“It’s not the Thunderdome. It’s not Mad Max. We don’t need to do that.”
Woolworths told the station it was working with the police. “We will not tolerate violence of any kind from our customers in our stores,” a spokesperson said.
