FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KMPH) — A woman that was caught in the center of a meltdown at Bass Lake is now speaking about the experience.
Over the weekend, Maria Maciel says she was spending the day soaking up the sun with two other people at the lake.
She says they were minding their business, but someone else was very interested in what they were doing.
“They came toward us, I heard her make a comment, ‘They could have COVID!’” she says.
Maciel says that her group was approached several times by another woman that was visiting the lake.
The woman, who was in the area with family, asked Maciel to leave a couple of different times times.
“She came down to us and told us, ‘I have to tell you to move, because my family is coming through and I’m protecting my family. My sister told her, ‘We are too!’ I told her, ‘You know what? There are ways of asking things. This is not the way,’” Maciel said.
After the third time, Maciel says her sister told the woman that they weren't planning on leaving.
“She came again and yelled at us, told us, demanding us to move again. My sister said, ‘Why do we have to move? There's plenty of space,’ and she said 'I want you to move!' I said, ‘There's ways of asking.’ Then (her) brother said, ‘We apologize, she's going through a lot she's a nurse and she's going through a lot.’”
Maciel says the woman was so certain that there wasn't enough distance between the two groups, that she went to grab a measuring tape to prove it.
This is the point where Maria grabbed her phone and started to film the encounter.
“I never thought it was going to go viral. But it's pretty much a message too, to let people know there's no right for people to get treated that way. If you don't feel comfortable, if you don't feel good, then don't go to the lake, don’t go anywhere. Don't go where there's gonna be other people going there. It's not a private area. We didn’t invade her.”