These Karens have nobody to blame but themselves. For this list, we’ll be looking at rude, obnoxious, and entitled people who caused mayhem with their terrible actions, only to be dealt the sparkling hand of karma.
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00:00 "Go back to India!"
00:01 "Why? We'll take- we'll take- "
00:02 "We don't want you here!"
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:08 for the top 20 times Karen's ruined their own lives.
00:12 "I will be talking to the chief of police, and I will be speaking to the mayor."
00:16 For this list, we'll be looking at rude, obnoxious, and entitled people
00:21 who caused mayhem with their terrible actions,
00:24 only to be dealt the sparkling hand of karma.
00:27 Which famous Karen story annoyed you the most? Let us know in the comments.
00:31 Number 20. Collier Karen.
00:36 Apparently, even walking down a street is enough to get the wrath of a Karen.
00:40 In 2021, a mother walking down a road in Collier County, Florida, experienced exactly that.
00:47 They were on a public sidewalk when Patricia Schmidt stopped her car and blared the horn at
00:52 the two, apparently believing that they were trespassing in the neighborhood.
00:56 Schmidt then rolled down the window and yelled at them for walking there,
01:00 before escalating the situation by going on a racist and ableist rant at the child.
01:06 "Your son, it must be special ed."
01:08 Unbelievably, this terrible Karen is an exceptional student education specialist,
01:13 a teacher who specializes in special needs children at Lely Elementary School.
01:19 Or we should say, was. Schmidt was thankfully fired from her job due to her disgusting behavior.
01:25 "We're also going to be calling for the revocation of her teaching certificate
01:30 through the Florida Department of Education."
01:32 Number 19. SoHo Karen.
01:35 Losing a cell phone can be a frightening experience that causes people to panic.
01:39 Even in the panic, any decent person wouldn't go around racial profiling.
01:44 In 2020, however, while at the Arlo Hotel in Manhattan, New York,
01:48 a woman named Mia Ponsetto lost her device and accused teenager Kion Harold Jr.,
01:54 the son of musician Kion Harold, of stealing it. Not believing his rejections of the baseless claims,
02:01 Ponsetto attacked him in the lobby before she was dragged away.
02:05 Her phone was ultimately found at the hotel. In 2022, Ponsetto pleaded guilty to unlawful
02:11 imprisonment in the form of a hate crime. For this, she was given a two-year probation sentence
02:17 and ordered to attend counseling.
02:19 "Now if Ponsetto fails to comply with the terms of the plea deal,
02:22 she is facing up to four years in prison."
02:25 Number 18. Cabin Karen.
02:27 "I'm here, getting ready to go to work, put on a yellow life jacket,
02:31 point out the exits, hand out chicken or beef. What sort of Friday night is this for me?"
02:36 Having already been fired by Norwegian Air for allegedly spitting in a passenger's cup of coffee,
02:42 Joanne Wickenden decided to go even further in 2017. Before work one day,
02:48 the cabin staff employee for British Airways filmed herself via Snapchat. Wickenden felt
02:54 it was appropriate to slate her job and go on a racist rant against Nigerians.
02:59 "All the Nigerians are gonna be there like, 'Gimme Coca-Cola,
03:02 gimme beef. Why you have no beef left? I want beef.'"
03:05 After the video went out, she claimed she was set up and spurred on by co-workers,
03:10 an excuse that doesn't really make any of it better.
03:13 "All the Nigerians, they're all gonna be there asking for f---ing upgrades
03:16 'cause I haven't got enough leg room 'cause all their BBCs are in their way."
03:20 Her employers weren't happy and quickly called in Wickenden for a meeting. However,
03:26 Wickenden says she resigned from British Airways before she was shown the door.
03:30 17. Barbecue Becky
03:34 On a warm day at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California in 2019, a Black family was trying
03:40 to enjoy a barbecue in a dedicated grilling area, only to be interrupted by Jennifer Schult,
03:45 a white woman who called 911 on them twice. She harassed them over having a charcoal grill
03:52 long enough for a bystander to confront her.
03:54 "It's illegal to have a charcoal grill in the park here."
03:58 "No, it's not actually. I just looked at the map. It says this is a designated barbecue area."
04:02 The video went viral and details a grand 25 minutes of the altercation,
04:07 in which we get to see exactly how Schult tries to manipulate the situation and play the victim.
04:13 "Oh my God."
04:18 She was quickly dubbed "Barbecue Becky" online, and plenty of memes began to circulate.
04:23 Even her alma mater, Stanford University, commented on Schult.
04:27 We'd say that's karma well served.
04:29 16. SoCal Karen
04:33 Folks in Torrance, California just wanted to go about their business. But if they had
04:38 Asian heritage, Lena Hernandez wouldn't make the day easy for them.
04:42 "You know what? I am not a racist person."
04:44 "You just made a racist woman."
04:46 "You need to go home."
04:47 She was known to approach people and spit racist tirades at them. While she escaped
04:52 punishment for a time, justice eventually came crashing down for Hernandez. In 2019,
04:58 after verbally assaulting a mall employee, a woman named Kasey Lynn Salminow stepped in.
05:04 Hernandez didn't like this and physically attacked her. It took a while for the police to do
05:09 anything, but by 2020, Hernandez found herself in court. She pleaded no contest to a charge of
05:15 misdemeanor battery. As such, the retired social worker got 45 days in jail, anger management
05:22 classes, and three years of probation.
05:25 "What she did was violent. It was a violent attack to me.
05:28 So it should have been the maximum amount of six months."
05:31 "What kind of message does this send to other perpetrators?"
05:35 15. Plain Karen
05:38 Babies on planes can be a recipe for discomfort, but there are ways to go about potentially asking
05:44 to move seats, and this isn't it. After realizing she was seated next to an infant,
05:49 the woman in this video, Susan Perez, threw a fit rather reminiscent of that of an infant.
05:55 "I said, 'Please don't use that language in front of my son.'
05:58 And she turned around and saw me and she said, 'Shut the f--- up.'"
06:02 She then threatened one of the members of the cabin staff with her job,
06:05 only to learn very swiftly that she was not at liberty to do that sort of thing.
06:10 "Thank you, Tabitha. You may not have a job tomorrow."
06:13 "I want to leave."
06:14 Perez's attitude took a complete 180, but it was not enough to save her from consequences.
06:21 When the video went viral online, Perez was suspended from her employment at the
06:25 New York State Council on the Arts.
06:28 "Now Perez's name and image have been removed from the council's official website,
06:32 and she's been placed on a leave of absence."
06:34 Number 14. Soup Skirmish.
06:37 Working in the service industry can be a thankless job. And being a manager,
06:42 you have to deal with customer complaints, adding more stress to a tense employment.
06:46 In 2021, we all witnessed just how brutal it can be when a customer threw a bowl of
06:52 spicy soup at a restaurant worker.
06:54 "My eyes were stinging so bad. They were burning,
06:57 and the spices were all like inside of the top part of my nose."
07:01 Reportedly, Amanda Martinez had called to complain about her takeaway soup being so hot
07:06 that it apparently melted the plastic lid. But it didn't go anywhere, so she went into the
07:11 restaurant — Sol de Jalisco in Temple, Texas — and argued with manager Janelle Browland.
07:18 "You just still continue to yell, make a scene."
07:20 The act of violence caused Browland injuries, and in 2023,
07:25 Martinez would plead no contest to assault. She received a 15-month deferred adjudication,
07:32 six days of jail work release, and was fined $800 plus court costs.
07:37 Number 13. Albany Karen.
07:41 It might be spelled slightly differently, but we actually have a Karen named Karen for the century.
07:46 In 2021, a group of Black women, including local community activist Jamela Anderson,
07:52 were having a nice time at a restaurant in Albany, New York.
07:55 "Jamela, Jamela, why did you call the owner?"
07:57 "I did, he told me to tell you to leave and call the cops."
08:00 Then, Karen Burton got abusive and went on a racist rant.
08:04 "You're the problem and you're the n****."
08:09 Even when the cops arrived to sort out the problem,
08:12 Burton could be heard yelling racial slurs at customers and the staff.
08:16 After the grim video spread online, Burton's employer, Humana, a medical insurance company,
08:22 fired her and slated her for her hate speech.
08:24 Plus, Burton was also banned from other establishments in the area.
08:28 Number 12. Commissioner Karen.
08:31 "The high-powered woman slammed for berating cops during a traffic stop is breaking her silence."
08:37 Hitting the jackpot, another Karen named Karen.
08:40 In 2018, the police pulled over an unregistered car and impounded it in Tenafly, New Jersey.
08:46 The car, as it transpired, was being driven by the daughter of Karen Turner.
08:50 Turner was on the board of commissioners for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
08:55 and tried to use her power to intimidate the cops who stopped her daughter.
08:59 "I will be talking to the chief of police and I will be speaking to the mayor."
09:03 The car's registration was two years out of date,
09:05 and an insurance card couldn't be produced at the time of the traffic stop.
09:09 Turner, upon arriving at the scene where the vehicle was to be impounded,
09:12 displayed aggressive behavior, requested that officers refer to her as "commissioner,"
09:18 and mentioned that she was friends with the mayor.
09:20 Turner eventually released an apology, resigned from the board, and was fined $1,500.
09:25 "Turner now says, 'As a parent, I was upset and uncomfortable with the unfolding events.
09:31 I regret my tone toward the police officers and use of off-color language.'"
09:36 11. Starbucks Karen
09:38 During the pandemic, many businesses globally had a simple rule for customers - wear a face mask.
09:45 It was government-mandated for one thing, but it proved to be too much for some,
09:49 including one Amberlynn Gillis.
09:51 "Gillis says she has medical problems, but also says masks are not effective."
09:55 "One of them, I get shortness of breath, dizziness, and it messes with the heartbeat."
10:00 After being refused service at a Starbucks in San Diego,
10:03 she photographed Lennon Gutierrez and tried to publicly shame the barista on social media.
10:09 Only, it backfired magically. A GoFundMe was created on Gutierrez's behalf that brought in
10:14 over $105,000. In interviews, Gutierrez stated he planned to put it toward his prospective dance
10:22 career. With that very public embarrassment, Gillis then issued a lawsuit against the
10:26 fundraiser's creator, Matt Cowan, for various reasons, in part with the hopes of attaining
10:32 some of the money from the GoFundMe.
10:34 "When asked if she has any apology or message to the public."
10:38 "Uh, no, absolutely not. I feel like I need the apology I've been discriminated against."
10:43 Number 10. Kefauve Kelly
10:46 In 2018, Darion Tolles attempted to go inside his apartment building in St. Louis, Missouri.
10:53 However, Hilary Brooke Muller wasn't keen on that idea. She stood in his way and blocked his path.
10:59 As they spoke, Muller acted as though she owned the building. She didn't,
11:04 and kept asking which unit Tolles lived in, demanding to see his Kefauve.
11:09 "All I'm asking is what unit?"
11:11 "But you know, I don't need to tell you that information, ma'am."
11:13 "If you want to come into my building."
11:15 "It's not your building, you're not the owner."
11:17 Even though he had a key to get in, she continued harassing him inside after
11:21 Tolles had to force his way past her.
11:23 "No."
11:24 "Excuse me."
11:25 "No."
11:25 "Are you kidding me? Where are you going?"
11:30 Once the video was released, many accused Muller of being racist. However,
11:35 she claimed it was because she didn't recognize Tolles.
11:38 Regardless, Muller's employer, Tribeca STL, fired her for her dodgy behavior.
11:44 "Her now former employer has issued a statement about her firing using the words
11:48 'racism' and 'racial profiling.'"
11:51 Number 9. Texas Karen.
11:53 "If they knew you were so great in your country, then stay there."
11:57 In 2022, a group of four Indian American women were walking to their cars after dinner in Plano,
12:03 Texas. Instead of going home after a nice night, they had to endure the racist tirade
12:09 of Mexican-American Esmeralda Upton.
12:11 "Go back to India."
12:13 "Why? Who take, who take?"
12:14 "We don't want you here."
12:16 Using a flurry of slurs and insults, the unhinged Upton also struck the women several times,
12:23 and threatened them.
12:24 "Oh, oh, come, come closer. Come closer."
12:26 "Oh my God, guys, record. She's hitting me. She's hitting me. Oh my God. Oh my God."
12:33 Feeling in danger from the abuse and attacks, they called the cops who arrived shortly after.
12:39 Later on, Upton was arrested for assault and making threats.
12:42 But that's not all. At the time of writing, two of the four women, Bidisha Rudra and Indrani
12:49 Banerjee, have issued lawsuits against Upton for the traumatizing incident.
12:54 Number 8. Permit Patty.
12:57 Have you ever seen a child harmlessly selling something on the street to raise money for
13:01 something and thought, "Yeah, I'm gonna ruin their life"? If so, you and Allison Eddle could
13:06 be besties.
13:07 "This woman don't want to let a little girl sell some water."
13:10 In 2018 in San Francisco, 8-year-old Jordan Rodgers was selling bottled water on the street
13:17 to help her mom financially and go to Disneyland. Eddle, infuriated by the constant noise as she
13:23 worked from home, called the cops about Rodgers' lack of a permit.
13:27 "You can hide all you want. The whole world gonna see you, boo."
13:30 "Yeah, and illegally selling water without a permit."
13:32 As you can imagine, this didn't go down well with the internet,
13:36 which pointed out the racist overtones. With all that pressure and dispensaries refusing
13:41 to stock products from Eddle's employer, she was forced to resign as CEO of the cannabis
13:46 company TreatWell Health.
13:47 "It is Misattel's belief that TreatWell, its employees and patients, should not have to
13:53 suffer because of a situation that occurred in an escalated moment."
13:57 Number 7. Victoria's Secret Karen.
14:00 "This is crazy."
14:05 In 2021, something strange happened at a Victoria's Secret store in Milburn, New Jersey,
14:10 while Ijeoma Ukenta was doing some shopping. Ukenta reportedly claimed she asked Abigail Elphick to
14:17 step back as she was too close when they browsed. So she went to the staff and told them Ukenta
14:22 threatened her. When Ukenta began filming, Elphick attempted to hit her before she sobbed on the
14:28 floor.
14:28 "I never thought nothing like this would happen to me. She just tried to run and hit me.
14:32 And now she... Did you see her?"
14:37 Later, Elphick stated her reaction was due to a panic attack from being filmed.
14:41 "I'm sorry, I hope you look at it."
14:50 In the aftermath, Ukenta created a GoFundMe page for legal costs against Elphick. Within the page,
14:56 she also criticized the handling of the situation by the security and police.
15:01 At the time of writing, over $104,000 has been donated.
15:06 Number 6. Coughing Karen.
15:09 As most people came together during the global events to support each other,
15:13 some did their best to do the opposite. In 2021, masked shoppers in a Super Saver store
15:19 in Lincoln, Nebraska, attempted to get their groceries calmly. However, Janine Hoskovec had
15:24 other ideas. With a smirk on her unmasked face, she dramatically coughed at people pretending
15:31 it was allergies. "Excuse me, I'm coming through."
15:34 When folk protested Hoskovec's grotesque actions, she patronizingly called them "cute" and "sheep"
15:44 before descending into a rant about other people's health. After a very quick investigation,
15:49 her employer, the software company SAP, fired Hoskovec.
15:53 "Well guys, a team of internet sleuths quickly identified the woman seen in this video,
15:58 and in a matter of days, she's now lost her job."
16:01 Number 5. Smoothie Thrower.
16:04 In 2022, employees at Robex in Fairfield, Connecticut, were trying to get through the day.
16:10 Well, not on James Iannoso's watch. "As a person who's had multiple customer service jobs,
16:14 I've dealt with people like this, and I don't think we get paid enough to deal with it."
16:18 After buying a smoothie there, he gave it to his son at home, who had an allergic reaction.
16:24 After medical attention, Iannoso arrived at the store and launched into a tirade of insults,
16:30 slurs, and threats. "You don't know who made it?"
16:32 "There's four of us here, so we honestly don't know."
16:35 However, the employees claimed he never mentioned the peanut allergy to them.
16:42 He finished it off by throwing the smoothie at the staff.
16:45 "49-year-old James Iannoso is seen throwing his shake at the teenage employees."
16:49 "F---, I'm calling the f---, I'm calling the police!"
16:53 Well, it all went wrong for Iannoso. Firstly, he was arrested and received one year of probation.
16:58 Then, Iannoso was fired by Merrill Lynch. Finally, he faced a lawsuit from one of the employees,
17:04 but in September, the case was settled for $7,500.
17:08 Number 4. San Fran Karen.
17:13 James Waniyo was probably pretty startled in 2020 when he turned around and saw Lisa Alexander
17:19 staring at him, looking like a mix between a character from Smile and Get Out. At the time,
17:24 he had just finished writing Black Lives Matter with chalk on a property in San Francisco.
17:30 Well, Alexander and her husband Robert apparently knew the person who lived there.
17:34 "And you don't know if I live here or if this is my property?"
17:37 "We actually do know. That's why we're asking."
17:39 "Oh really? Because you live here, right? You said so."
17:41 "Because we know the person who does live here."
17:43 "Oh, okay."
17:45 This is odd since Waniyo actually resided there for years.
17:49 The couple then called the cops on the activist.
17:51 "I think they had a problem with the message, and I also believe
17:54 that they thought I was hurting property values."
17:57 "That's Karen, and she's calling the cops."
18:00 Once the video was released, Alexander had to put the website of her company,
18:04 Le Face Skin Care, offline temporarily, and she publicly apologized to Waniyo.
18:10 While Robert was fired from the financial firm, Raymond James.
18:13 3. Radio Karen
18:17 It's not every day a Karen films her own terrible behavior for the world to see and judge.
18:22 "He's a Black man, and he's gonna protect the brown man from this white woman."
18:29 But Diana Ploss is on another level, considering she had a little bit of fame.
18:34 In 2020, through Facebook Live, the conservative radio host recorded herself
18:38 berating landscapers in Nashua, New Hampshire, as they were working on the street.
18:43 "What's the first thing I do? Go for my phone. Gotta do a live stream.
18:47 Have to show people what's going on."
18:50 Ploss seemingly had an issue with the workers speaking Spanish.
18:53 "Okay, but it is America. It is America. You should be speaking English."
18:58 She repeatedly told them to speak in English, before asking if any of them were, quote,
19:02 "illegal" and saying their work was, quote, "communism."
19:06 Jeez. Afterward, the radio station WSMN cut ties with Ploss,
19:12 and the show she had hosted there for the past couple of years.
19:15 "We at WSMN value freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and assembly.
19:20 We will not tolerate discrimination, racism, or hatred."
19:24 2. Family of Karens
19:26 In 2021, Johnny Martinez was doing his job by checking cars for permits in the car park of
19:32 a residential building in Nashville, Tennessee. However, he realized he was being followed by a
19:37 Karen family duo, Bitsy Brennan and her son Edward. The two demanded to know what he was doing there,
19:44 ignoring the ID badge around Martinez's neck.
19:47 "I'm at a hotel. Yeah, this is not your apartment.
19:51 I don't need to tell them anything. Do you have an ID on you?"
19:57 Things quickly escalated when Edward attempted to attack Martinez in response to him filming
20:02 the confrontation. "You attacking me? Seriously? Get that phone out of here."
20:06 In response, Bitsy called the cops to come and sort this out. However, the duo apparently left
20:14 before the police arrived. Once the video went viral, Bitsy was reportedly fired from her job
20:19 at UBS, while Edward was charged with assault. "Now you're leaving? Okay. Yeah, it's unsafe.
20:26 Yeah, no worries. I'm gonna have you arrested, buddy."
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20:44 1. Central Park Karen
20:47 If this incident hadn't been filmed, it could've ended poorly for the victim.
20:52 "She understood the power she wielded at that moment to call police as a white woman
20:56 on a black man as a scary black man."
20:58 In 2020, Christian Cooper was in Central Park in New York City, enjoying some bird watching.
21:04 But he spotted Amy Cooper, no relation, with her dog that was off its lead, against the park's
21:11 rules. When Christian asked her to leash the dog and then offered it a treat, Amy exploded.
21:17 While strangling the poor pup as she held its collar tightly, she called the police,
21:22 put on an act, and claimed, quote, "an African-American man threatened her." Wow.
21:27 "Please call the cops."
21:28 "I'm gonna tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life."
21:32 After the backlash, Amy temporarily gave up her dog to a shelter
21:36 and was fired by her employer, Franklin Templeton.
21:39 She later took them to court for illegal dismissal, only to lose.
21:43 "In a tweet, Cooper's employer, Franklin Templeton Investments,
21:47 saying they don't tolerate racism of any kind."
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