The California “Karen” who berated a Starbucks barista online for refusing to serve her without a face mask says she deserves half of the more than $100,000 in donations raised for the employee.
Amber Lynn Gilles complained about the worker in a Facebook post last month, posting a picture of the man in one of the coffee giant’s San Diego locations who denied her service for not following the county’s coronavirus guidelines.
“Meet lenen from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I’m not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption,” she wrote in the now-deleted post.
Generous readers opened their wallets to support the worker, Lenin Gutierrez, raising more than $105,400 in “tips” for him through GoFundMe.
Gilles told ABC affiliate KGTV that she’s considering suing to collect half of those funds because she claims to have underlying health issues that make her medically exempt from mask mandates.
“It was discrimination and everybody is OK with it and enabling and rewarding that behavior,” Gilles said.
“I get shortness of breath, dizziness and it messes with the heartbeat,” she told the station. “And I do have asthma as well, and I do get mask-acne. So there’s several things going on and not only that but it doesn’t even work.”
Gilles brought two documents to the outlet to prove her exemption. One document was a pelvic exam from 2015, reporting a “probable exophytic fibroid arising from the anterior wall of the uterus measuring 2.9 cm size,” and “simple 2.5 cm left ovarian cyst.”
A second was a handwritten note on letterhead from a local chiropractor, reading, “Amber has underlying breath conditions that prevent her from wearing a mask or any type of facial covering whatsoever. Please contact me if have any questions.”
Gilles asked for the chiropractor to not be named, and the practitioner declined to discuss Gilles when the outlet reached out for comment.
She defended using a note from a chiropractor for a breathing-related condition because “They are dedicated to providing non-invasive personalized care and treatment. They are real doctors.”
Gilles said she was not remorseful at all for her post and that she has started her own GoFundMe to raise money for legal fees should she decide to sue.
“I feel like I need the apology,” she told KGTV. “I’ve been discriminated against, I’m the one who’s sick.”