HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. – People come to The Clothes Basket on Highway 7 in Holly Springs to clean their clothes, but Sheri McClatchy’s job is to keep the laundromat itself clean.
“Never had any trouble at all. Never a cross word with anybody for two years,” McClatchy said.
But what happened Friday just after noon went beyond cross words. Surveillance cameras captured a female customer attacking McClatchy following a conversation McClatchy had with two other customers.
McClatchy said she was reminding two women not to overload the washing machines.
“That we can’t refund if you’re overloading the washers,” McClatchy said.
That’s when she said another customer butted in with a lecture about how the laundromat was responsible if the machines broke.
“Just started telling me how she was a law student,” McClatchy said.
“It had nothing to do with her. She was just another customer in here using the dryer.”
It wasn’t long before the verbal assault soon turned into a physical one. Just out of the range of a surveillance camera, McClatchy said she was slammed against some dryers.
As McClatchy fights back, the customer who lost her cool loses her hair. The customer’s wig comes flying off and the two fall to the ground.
“When you can’t grab the shirt because the wig is hanging so long, you grab for what you can. You gotta get your hands on them,” McClatchy said.
McClatchy said she managed to get away and walked outside, but that the angry customer followed her. Worried she was going to resume the attack, McClatchy said she drew her gun and the woman backed off.
Several minutes later, cameras show police arriving on the scene, but the customer had already left. McClatchy said she’s not welcome back at the laundromat.
“I don’t have a problem with her, I have a problem with how she handled it and I hope in her future, she says she’s gonna be an attorney or a lawyer, I hope she learns to hold her composure a whole lot better,” she said.
Holly Springs police confirmed that they took a report, but didn’t respond to an email asking if any charges had been filed.
