California man punches mom for hiding toilet paper from him during lockdown, gets arrested
SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA: A man has been arrested and charged after he attacked his mother because he felt she was hoarding too much toilet paper, police said.
The incident came to light after deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office responded to the Plum Canyon Road and Mirabelle Lane residence of 26-year-old Andrew Yan around 3 am on Monday, April 6, according to the Los Angeles Times.
When they reached the scene, they learned that Yan had punched his mother over an argument about toilet paper, of which there have been shortages around the country during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Yan claimed he had been arguing with his mother because she was hoarding the toilet paper, and that the argument eventually escalated and he attacked her.
In response, the mother, who has not been identified, claimed she had hidden the toilet paper because she felt her son was using too much of it. She declined medical treatment at the scene.
Shirley Miller, of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Department, confirmed the events. "The victim and suspect reportedly had a verbal argument about toilet paper," she said. "The suspect felt the victim was hiding it."
Yan has been charged with battery and detained in connection to the incident.
"Deputies arrested the (26-year-old suspect) on charges of battery," Miller confirmed. "He was transported and booked at the station."
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station has reportedly been receiving many reports of family violence as people are stuck together in close quarters during the state's shelter-in-place directive imposed to slow the spread of the outbreak.
"People are cooped up together and getting on each other's nerves. It was to be expected, it’s happening everywhere," Miller shared.
MEA WorldWIde (MEAWW) previously reported on a similar incident in Sydney where a mother and daughter duo brawled over toilet paper in Woolworths.
A video of the assault that went viral on social media showed three women yelling, screaming, pushing, shoving, and fighting over a jumbo packet of toilet paper.
The mother-daughter duo had spent hours waiting for the store to open at 7 am, and when it did, they had started piling their trolley high with toilet paper. When another woman tried to pick a packet from their pile, they lost their cool and started fighting.
The women were separated by store staff and the mother and daughter were later charged with fighting in a public place to cause a disturbance.
There have been reports of widespread shortages of toilet paper around the world, with desperate Americans going so far as to crossing into Mexico to buy it and other household stuff as stores in the US were wiped clean.
Workers at a Costco store in Tijuana shared that as many as 600 people have been turning up in the mornings.
Maria Castro, who works at a Costco store in Fullerton, California, was one of those who made their way down and traveled some 140 miles from Los Angeles to the store in Tijuana to buy the goods since she was not able to get them at her workplace.
"It's tough for us to come down here to get things, but we're going to try it," she said.