Harassment by Queens Pizza Store Employee

miami85

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 9:50 pm

DrMom wrote:

Good! And the restaurant should get in trouble for employing him.

But why do you assume he is an illegal immigrant? The US doesn't seem to care if people are there illegally these days, so why would that be the reason he'd worry about having his picture taken?

In any case, you should report the incident to the manager first.

I doubt they would get in trouble, Hochul is sympathetic to illegal immigrants: https://www.governor.ny.gov/ne.....uring

amother

DarkViolet ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 10:02 pm

Why do people need to push their obsessive political agendas onto every dumb convo. I've done a lot of immigration law and the premise is ridiculous. A picture tells you zero about whether someone is in the US legally or illegally. You can have two siblings who look very similar, one has legal status, one doesn't. How would a picture show any of that? If you could tell just by looking at someone, people without legal status wouldn't be able to show their faces on the street.

What exactly would this person be afraid of? That OP's dd is going to send his picture to some government agency and that they'll say.... what? "Omg! This person looks like they weren't born in the US! Let's get him!" Please. Even someone who filed a case for asylum that they'll eventually lose is still legally in the US while the case is pending (which can take years with the backlog) and can have legal work authorization.

This person sounds like a regular creep or totally off at best. But we don't need to turn every thread into some poster's obsessive political agendas. There's nothing there.

amother

↑ DarkViolet ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 10:05 pm

DrMom wrote:

Exactly. It has zero bearing on this case, and this guy should be reported for being a creep regardless. Some people like to hijack every thread to become about whatever issue they're obsessed with.

imaima ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 10:11 pm

amother OP wrote:

I am so freaked out. My family is visiting in Queens. My children went with an adult to eat out at Benji’s. They had a good time and took pictures there. When they were done eating, they crossed the street to Wasserman's. As they were crossing the street, my teenage daughter noticed that the worker from behind the counter at Benji's was following them. While they were in Wasserman’s, the worker from Benji’s waited until the adult with them was busy on a cellphone and then approached my teenage daughter and asked if she took pictures of him. She said she was scared and the man looked strange and she told him no. He demanded to see her phone and he scrolled through her pictures to see. Then he asked another one of my teenage daughters for her phone, but she doesn’t have one, she had been using the adult’s phone in the pizza store, so the man assumed she also had a phone. Finally, he left. (Yes, I’m upset with the adult for not paying attention to what was going on and at the kids for not going to the adult they were with while this was happening.) I don’t live here, is there anyone who does and has heard of anything like this happening? I was worried before I came here that NY was not safe, now I’m really scared. I feel like now I can’t let my kids who are teenagers go anywhere without tight supervision.

Well it is illegal to take pictures of other people. Just a side note.
I don’t mean that your kids did bit it is something to remember.

amother

↑ Tangerine ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 10:14 pm

it is not illegal to take pictures in a pizza shop.
full stop.
what on earth...
all the more so nowadays we have people videotaping everything and anything everywhere
clips going viral

can we kindly stay on topic

what is so challenging here

amother

↑ Tangerine

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 10:16 pm

and I am glad to get a heads up to warn my kids and role play and practice what to do in such a situation in which one could freeze despite knowing what to do
thank you for paying it forward op
my daughters our my priority
not some supposed PC agenda or some male creep with a poor childhood or other reason no excuses

amother

↑ DarkViolet ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 10:32 pm

amother Tangerine wrote:

This. Maybe in some places around the world but not in a public place in Queens.

Plus, this whole discussion is moot unless we actually think OP's dd took pics (and even then who cares). He could just be a creep who followed them to harass them and made a false accusation to get them to give him their phone. Did he send anything from the phone to himself? Would they have noticed?

↑ imaima

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 10:44 pm

amother Tangerine wrote:

If I ever had a suspicion that someone is taking pictures of me, I would absolutely address it.

So the girls can be prepared that one is not always a creep when they are against their pictures being taken.
One should try and take pictures without others in the picture.
And there is a warning if a place has videotaping, for this reason.

amother

↑ Vanilla ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 11:19 pm

imaima wrote:

You can address it all you want, that doesn't change the fact that it's perfectly legal.

amother

Violet ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 11:26 pm

amother Vanilla wrote:

You can address it all you want, that doesn't change the fact that it's perfectly legal.

Right so then why r ppl suggesting calling the cops? He didn't break any laws. It's weird and inappropriate what he did but the cops won't care. What's more important is making sure our children are equipped to deal with such situations.

amother

Strawberry

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 11:52 pm

Log into your cellphone carrier and check if a text or something was sent from the phone he handled around that time.

I would speak to your daughters and educate them about not obeying all adults.

I would also want to know if they did anything that would make that man feel like they were recording him.

Then I would have a NY'er (or yourself) who is a regular at the store,, speak to the owner/manager and tell what happened. Is this employee new? Is it out of character? Is it a new hire that needs firing? If you can't get a hold of the owner/manager, then call shomrim so they can look into it. Its a frum pizza store, if its a problem person it needs reporting so they aren't around our children.

Alternatively you can ignore it because you guys are going home anyway and won't see him again.

I'm sorry that happened op. Its not normal even for NY. Many NY mothers would feel just like you from that story.

amother

↑ Vanilla

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 11:57 pm

amother Violet wrote:

Not my point at all, it should definitely be reported to the business and possibly shomrim/the authorities

I was addressing imaima who said she'd address people who took a picture of her
Which she can do but it's good to know that it's legal

amother

↑ DarkViolet ↓

Wed, Jul 17 2024, 11:58 pm

amother Violet wrote:

Because it's illegal to harass and intimidate people. OP can educate her daughters to tell him to leave them alone and if he doesn't they can call the police.

amother

↑ DarkViolet ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 12:00 am

imaima wrote:

You'd have no grounds and they can tell you to leave them alone.

Of course OP can teach her kids to not do things that might antagonize strangers, but we have no reason to assume they did anything in the first place.

amother

↑ Violet

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 1:31 am

amother DarkViolet wrote:

Because it's illegal to harass and intimidate people. OP can educate her daughters to tell him to leave them alone and if he doesn't they can call the police.

That's not the legal definition of harassment. And intimidation is way subjective. Not saying what he did was right but the police would laugh at this once they turned their backs.

amother

Slateblue ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 1:42 am

Speaking as a mom who lives in that neighborhood please please PLEASE reach out to Shomrim. No I would not start with the manager of the store, because there's always a chance that the manager would just fire the guy and whatever this guy was doing he will just leave and do to others.

There is no good reason for the worker to have done this, but plenty of bad ones. Was he doing something illegal and thought he might have been filmed? Is he wanted for some crime somewhere? Is he just someone who enjoys harassing teenage girls? Was he looking to grab their phones and run off, or maybe even C"V harm them???

Please tell your kids (and yourself) that there's an old trick they used to teach kids that still works really well - you yell, you shout, you scream, you get the attention of the people around you! In this case the girls could have screamed 'leave me alone', 'stop it', 'you're scaring us', 'who are you, what do you want from us', or good old fashioned 'help!' . This is not the time to be quiet.

If you really won't contact shomrim, please at least contact the Queens Jewish Link (a local Jewish paper) so someone there can investigate and warn others. https://www.queensjewishlink.com/

Warning a fellow yid of impeding danger is so important, if you won't do it for your kids, please do it for those of us who live here.

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 2:37 am

amother Vanilla wrote:

Please please talk to your teenage daughters. They really should be able to understand not speaking to strangers, especially the older teen giving her phone to stranger no no no
Please please reinforce the concept of boundaries in their minds!

We have to stop teaching girls to be so polite and nice and compliant. We are creating perfect victims.

amother

↑ Azure

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 3:28 am

amother Violet wrote:

So there's a complaint on record for this guy and it god forbid this comes up again, he will be flagged. It will follow him wherever he goes.