'We got another one': Woman says man ejaculated on her back inside Dollar Tree store that saw 3 assaults over 4 days

Dollar Tree faces a lawsuit after a man allegedly ejaculated on a woman while she was shopping inside a store on Dec. 5, 2023, in Houston, Texas. (Google Maps)

A woman filed a lawsuit against Dollar Tree Inc. after she said a man covertly ejaculated on her back while she was shopping inside a Texas store in December.

The alleged incident took place around 10:30 a.m. Dec. 5 at the store at 1430 W. Gray St. in Houston , according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Harris County District Court . The woman, identified by her initials of M.R. in the lawsuit to protect her identity, said she was browsing items in one aisle while her friend was in another. She said a man suddenly came up behind her and “started saying sexually explicit things to her.”

The plaintiff hurried away and went to her friend to say they had to leave. As they were paying for the items she saw the man leave on a bicycle.

“As Plaintiff was getting into her car, her friend pointed out something wet and sticky all over the back of Plaintiff’s sweatshirt,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiff realized that the perpetrator had ejaculated on her while making his vulgar remarks to her inside the store.”

The woman and her friend helped clean her off with towels they bought inside, the lawsuit said. She then when home to take a shower and change her clothes to “rid her mind of the dirty, disturbing encounter,” according to the suit. She later called her sister, a cop who advised her to report the incident. The victim returned to the store to speak with employees.

When she explained what happened, the clerk allegedly yelled at her manager “we got another one.” It was reportedly the third assault in four days at the business. The plaintiff called police and she gave officers the towels she used to clean up, hoping they could find the perpetrator through his DNA, per the suit. A security guard at the store also took her account of events and drove her around on his golf cart to see if she saw the suspect among the homeless men standing nearby. But she did not see the man, the lawsuit said. Dollar Tree employees also allegedly told her while there were cameras in the store, they did not capture the incident.

“As the result of the sexual assault, which was facilitated by the negligence of the defendants, plaintiff has suffered severe mental anguish, emotional distress and emotional trauma,” the lawsuit said. “Her symptoms include, but are not limited to, nightmares, significant anxiety, fearfulness, and distrust of others, especially men.”

Her lawyers claim the business failed to have appropriate levels of staffing, implement security measures, failed to report the incident in question and other assaults to police and did not warn customers about the string of sexually-motivated crimes.

“It is shocking and despicable,” her lawyer Anna Greenberg of Blizzard & Greenberg Law said a statement . “How was a complete stranger able to violate my client in the middle of a weekday morning? That alone speaks to the fact Dollar Tree is not maintaining a safe environment for the people who shop there.”

Plaintiffs also attached to the lawsuit recent news reports about how dollar stores often attract crimes such as thefts and assaults. In fact, CNN reported last year that Dollar Tree said shoplifting became such a problem that it had to lock up certain items or just stop selling them because they were being stolen so often.

The lawsuit seeks over $250,000.

A spokesperson for Virginia-based Dollar Tree said it was aware of the lawsuit, but can’t comment on pending litigation.

“Know that we take the situation very seriously and are committed providing a safe shopping environment for our customers,” the spokesperson said.

The post ‘We got another one’: Woman says man ejaculated on her back inside Dollar Tree store that saw 3 assaults over 4 days first appeared on Law & Crime .