Carnegie’s mayor and police chief say they are aware of recent reports of harassment targeting businesses on Main Street.
A video posted to TikTok appears to show someone yelling a racial slur inside a Japanese restaurant in Carnegie.
Business owner Michael Ploetz, who owns Woolly Bear Books and Tiger Moth Mercantile, said he believes the incidents are connected to a social media “rage baiting” trend involving minors recording confrontations to provoke reactions.
“Essentially, it boils down to a group of minors trying to film TikToks and rile people up,” Ploetz said.
Ploetz said a group of minors entered both of his businesses within the past two weeks.
He said one incident happened after hours during a meeting at Woolly Bear Books.
“The doors were unlocked because a book club was meeting there, and they proceeded to yell and shout a couple of slurs,” Ploetz said. “I believe one of them was filming.”
Police say the recent reported incidents involve a group, or groups, of minors repeatedly harassing businesses and using vulgar and offensive language.
People who watched the video expressed frustration, including Carnegie father Antoine Pope, who said he knows the apparent minors seen in the videos.
He said he plans to call their parents.
“There’s no way that they should be going into businesses, yelling racial slurs when their parents are actually spending money at these places,” Pope said.
Ploetz said it is troubling to learn similar incidents may be happening repeatedly throughout Carnegie.
“Hearing about what happened at one of my book clubs, hearing that it’s been happening over and over again here in Carnegie, I realize it is a bigger issue,” he said.
Carnegie police are asking anyone who witnesses an incident of harassment to call 911.
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