A pregnant mother was left humiliated when two ‘Karens’ mercilessly berated her, claiming she ‘disrespected’ a public park bench.
A woman named Linsey Karayou shared with DailyMail.com that she was waiting for her son to come back from the bathroom when two women approached her. They were adamant that her son’s snack bag, placed beside the seat, was not acceptable.
The women accused Karayou and her family of “littering” near the seat, which had been set up as a tribute to one of the women’s deceased sister at Bayfront Park in Sarasota, Florida.
In a video that has since gone viral, one of the women, wearing a blue-and-green tank top with white shorts, can be seen standing over the bench by the waterfront, launching into a profanity-laced rant.
As Kapayou began to explain that her son had stepped away but was returning, the pair kicked off and an ugly spat was ignited.
Kapayou said that she was ‘utterly surprised’ at the whole situation and began recording because she was alone – her children and husband in the bathroom – and pregnant.
‘My son, daughter and husband came after [the woman] took my son’s snacks and jabbed her finger into my arm and stormed away,’ Kapayou told DailyMail.com on Wednesday of the incident last week.
‘I was shook from the whole interaction! I am 12 weeks pregnant,’ she added. ‘I felt like I was defending my right to use a public bench. It was humiliating.
‘At first I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. They walked up and grabbed my son’s food claiming it was trash.
‘I hadn’t even realized he set it there before he ran to the restroom. I simply said it was not trash and it was his and they asked for me to move it.’
Video from the beginning of the outrageous exchange shows one woman fuming as she lamented: ‘This bench I donated because of my late sister passed away.’
The clip shows Kapayou trying to explain, telling the irate women: ‘My son just set it there and he walked to the bathroom… and he will be back soon and he will pick it up.’
But the woman fired back: ‘I am asking if it can be moved.’
As the two women loitered idly over her, they continued to challenge the mom, with the woman in blue-and-green raising her voice and pointing at the pregnant mother.
The ill-mannered woman then grabbed the snack bag, while pointing towards a plaque at the edge of the bench, asking Kapayou to ‘come around and look at the plaque.’
‘Can you come around, come and look at the plaque. This bench!’ she said, while yelling over her accomplice who was busy arguing with Kapayou.
Kapayou then said the entire ordeal was ‘really not that big of a deal’ because her son would ‘be right back’ and would ‘just pick up the bag.’
‘For her… for other people, it is [a big deal],’ the woman dressed in a black tank and tan shorts said before the heated confrontation took an unexpected turn.
‘Has your sister died?’ she asked.
‘No my sister… I don’t have a sister,’ Kapayou replied.
The woman in black blatantly disregarded Kapayou’s reply before asking another unsettling question.
‘Okay, so you wouldn’t know. Has your mother died?’ she boldly asked.
‘Yeah, she’s dead,’ Kapayou retorted, before going a step further to reveal how deeply she ‘understands grief.’
‘And my father is also dead, and I am also a mortician. So I understand your grief that you probably have. My son just set it down and he can literally walk back and pick it right back up,’ she defended.
But the woman dressed in blue-and-green fumed back: ‘I don’t want trash next to my sister’s f***ing bench b****.’
‘F*** you!’ she said as she walked away with the child’s snack bag still in hand.
‘Don’t throw that away!’ the mother yelled as the woman holding her son’s snacks walked out of the frame.
A second clip of the viral argument shows Kapayou sitting on the public bench with her shoes off and a book in her lap, as the woman in the black tank-top attempts to ‘explain the story of the lady that this bench was dedicated to.’
‘We are trying to share with her the story of the lady that this bench was dedicated to. But she will not stop talking. She will not stop just f****** like making her mouth move,’ the woman, who identified herself as a registered nurse, said.
The video then pans to the entire scene, where many people have now gathered to watch the spectacle unfold.
The ‘park bench Karen’ then starts posing with one hand on her hip and another on her head, just inches from the expecting mother, who is still sitting uncomfortably on the bench.
‘I’m sitting here minding my business, reading a book and you come attack me because my son’s food was on the ground,’ she says.
The clip, which has amassed over 197,000 likes, was shared on TikTok on Friday, and reposted on various social media sites since.
Social media users have since fired back at the ‘park bench Karens’ with some speculating the two women may have been intoxicated and others calling for the bench’s removal.
‘If she had walked away and left trash that’s one thing… BUT THEY ARE LITERALLY STILL HERE. Obnoxious drunk women.’ one user commented.
‘These Karen’s seem drunk,’ another chimed in.
‘Embarrassing to be drunk in public,’ another added.
‘The city needs to remove the placard and return their money if this gives them the assumption they can harass people if it’s not used to their standards. Call the city & park dept!’ wrote another.
