Moviegoer Maces Guy Who Asked Her to Turn Off Phone

A woman fed up with getting asked to turn her phone off resorted to extreme measures last night: She sprayed her fellow filmgoer with mace, Mashable reports. A witness at Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theater tells the site that the man politely asked the woman several times to switch off the bright screen. He finally tapped her on the shoulder, saying, "You need to turn off your phone!" Variety reports. That's when "she stands up and starts cursing, saying 'You hit me! You hit me! I'm going to call the police," the witness tells Mashable.

She proceeded to shine the phone's flashlight right at the man, as others asked her to turn it off. The two continued their exchange, and finally, the woman pulled out the mace and sprayed him in the face. "Everyone in the audience was watching in disbelief," a witness tells Variety. Afterward, the man and his girlfriend hurried out, while the woman sat back down and watched the movie. Some 15 minutes later, security escorted her out, and she cooperated—reportedly without complaint. Maybe she would have been better off with Google Glass. (The movie, in case you were wondering, was an AFI Film Festival screening of Mr. Turner, a biopic about the artist JMW Turner.)