A millionaire who made his fortune in tech allegedly offered $100,000 to a woman sitting next to him to remove her mask and has been labelled a "creep".
Steve Kirsch, named as the inventor of the optical mouse, said on Twitter that he was then shocked when the female passenger refused to do so, despite apparently being offered the princely sum, The Mirror reports.
Describing the bizarre encounter online, he wrote: “I am on board a Delta flight right now. The person sitting next to me in first class refused $100,000 to remove her mask for the entire flight. No joke. This was after I explained they don’t work."
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He prefaced it by saying he initially offered $100, then adding: "And I pointed out that when she removed the mask for eating and drinking, she could be infected with one breath. So she had full disclosure.
"She took off her mask as soon as the breakfast was served. Because everyone knows you can’t get infected while you are eating."
Comparing the woman to those who invested with the collapsed tech bank SVB, he joked: "Maybe next time I’ll sit next to someone who had an account at Silicon Valley Bank."
He shared this escapade on via his Twitter account (@stkirsch) and subsequently received considerable backlash, with some calling him a "lunatic" and others "creepy".
One user wrote: “Did you have the $100,000 in cash? If not, you sound like a lunatic. How could they trust you’d pay up?”
Another said: “Do you make a habit of offering money to random women to remove coverings from their bodies mid-air?”
Strangely, it's not the first time Steve Kirsch has acted in this way. Three days previous to this, he tweeted that two people had refused similar requests, reports the Mirror.
He wrote: “I asked the people sitting next to me on the plane if I paid them $10,000 would they remove their mask for the duration of the flight? Both declined the offer. Maybe I should offer $100,000 next time?”
His propositions were criticised by other online folk.
One wrote: “Women don’t want to make deals with creepy men on planes. It’s not complicated."
One user complained the $100,000 wouldn't nearly cover hospital bills racked up if someone actually got a bad case of Covid.
They wrote: “My hospital bills after admission for Covid came to over $300,000 (including the $80,000 air ambulance because local hospitals were all full), plus loss of clients/income, lung damage, ongoing disability, recovery/support expenses, etc - I’d need a minimum of $5million cash in hand.
“I wore a mask on the plane and still got Covid. I already have long Covid. My physical therapy bills laugh at your measly $10,000".
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