A TikTok video has gone viral after a white woman called the police on two Black men for shoveling snow, claiming they weren’t showing her any “respect” despite their good deed.
Gregory McAdory, who uploaded the video to TikTok on Feb. 18, said in an interview with The Daily Beast that he and his friend have a snow removal business in Rockford, Illinois. He explained that on Feb. 17 they finished clearing his friend’s father’s driveway, then moved onto the sidewalk in front of the neighbor’s house. That’s when the neighbor came out and “bugged” up on them, threatening to call the police, he said.
“When the police is called on people of my color, just to be on the safe side, I just say, ‘Record,’” McAdory said.
In the video, McAdory and his friend are seen speaking with an older white woman as she stands on a sidewalk, holding a shovel.
“You’re seriously mad because we cleaned off your sidewalk?” asks McAdory.
The woman, who later identifies herself as “Brunny,” ignores McAdory’s question and moves shoveled snow back on the sidewalk.
“Don’t trespass that line!” she says with an accent, pointing towards a makeshift barrier made out of snow. “I don’t need anything from you!”
McAdory tries to explain to the woman that they are helping her. The friend re-shovels the snow off the sidewalk, and the woman calls the police.
“That’s trespassing property,” she claims.
“This is a public sidewalk!” McAdory tells her.
“Get out of my way,” she responds.
“I have an emergency,” she says on the phone call, claiming that the two men were bothering her. “These two guys are African American, and I don’t get along with them. …They are making fun of me. See, they don’t have no respect!”
The Rockford Police Department provided a log of the service call to The Daily Beast, confirming it was placed at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 17. The caller—whose name had been blocked out—reported disorderly conduct and an “urgent” need for help, the call dispatcher’s notes say.
According to the notes, “There is a [race redacted]/M there harassing her and she doesn’t want him there.”
Another comment says there are “2 [race redacted]/[males].”
“She says they are disrespecting her and she wants them gone,” the notes say.
In a second video McAdory uploaded to TikTok, two Rockford police officers are on the scene, standing in front of a cruiser. One of the officers claims that the woman may have a mental illness. Eventually, they go to speak with the woman and direct the men to stay off her property and not shovel her snow.
The call log says officers were on the scene for about 18 minutes. An administrator from the Rockford Police Department told The Daily Beast that a police report was not taken during the incident.
According to McAdory, this was not the first time the woman had threatened to call the police on them. He told The Daily Beast that the last time they shoveled the driveway, the neighbor got upset that they touched her lawn. So, they figured clearing a path on the sidewalk in front of her home would show her they could be neighborly. McAdory said his friend’s family have known the woman for 15 years.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I don’t know if it’s racism,” McAdory said. “I just didn’t want to be arrested for something as minor as that.”
The Daily Beast was unsuccessful in multiple attempts to reach the neighbor.
