Some situations start off normal and spiral out of control pretty quickly.

Imagine you were a cashier and a customer held out their phone with a blank screen while you were checking them out, and you assumed they wanted you to scan a barcode. Would you ask them permission to touch the phone? Or would you just tap the screen like you always do in this situation?

In today’s story, one Target cashier finds herself in this sitaution and the customer is not happy about it. Here’s how it all played out.

AITA For Touching A Woman’s Phone Screen?

I work at Target, and I was in a check lane today. A man rolls a woman up in a wheelchair (I presume they are in a romantic relationship).

I say hello, and the woman raises her shampoo bottles with a smile, okay, fine enough. I ring everything up, and she shows her phone at a kind of confusing angle, but somewhat in my direction.

Her husband’s not even looking at the phone. Now, at Target, we scan barcodes on phones almost all the time. Sometimes the phone screen times out, and we just tap it for it to come back on.

The screen timed out, so she tapped it.

Now, normally, if I’m touching the phone extensively, like if the guest needs help with the app, I ask if I can see it, and the guests are usually more than happy to let me have it.

I didn’t ask here because it was just a phone screen timeout. It was completely blank, and I’m thinking she’s trying to show it to me so I can scan it. So I just tapped the phone so it would come on, and immediately she retracted it, holding it close to her heart, and said it wasn’t for me.

She then said what I did was very rude and raised her voice, saying I should never ever touch a guest’s phone without permission. I apologize and she continues on her tirade, and her husband does not even take a gander toward her or I.

Apparently, it was just a misunderstanding.

She then explains that she was trying to show her husband something, but I “messed it up” and now she can’t show it to him, even though it was off.

The whole time, her husband is looking solemnly at the ground. She then wheels off in a huff, and the husband just pays for the things and leaves.

I explain the situation to my team lead, and he agrees he would’ve made the same assumption (just tap the screen), and that it was weird, but to always just ask if I can touch it going forward. I said ok, and that was that.

AITA?

Wow! That reaction was a little harsh.

Let’s check out how the folks over at Reddit feel about touching someone’s phone.

This reader suggests asking from now on.

According to this comment, she’d have to see where the woman had the phone to make a fair judgment.

For this person, phones are dirty, and she shouldn’t touch them anyway.

That’s an interesting observation.

It was an honest mistake, but next time, she should ask just to be sure.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.