CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Mary Jane Hamblin says her Virginia donut shop is usually a place of happiness and community, but that recently changed.
“One woman threatened my grandchildren. My grandchildren are from 4 to 9 months old. They’ve said they’ll burn down our building, and that we are domestic terrorists,” said Hamblin.
She said one person even called her business saying they were coming to kill her.
Hamblin, who has owned and operated Amazing Glazed in Chesapeake for seven years, said the threats were sparked by a Facebook post on Tuesday. She said her husband and his friends decided it would be a historical event to watch President Donald Trump speak in Washington, D.C., last week.
“As they were getting in the car all excited to go, I snapped a picture innocently and put it on what I thought was my private personal Facebook page. It showed a picture of them and the title just said, ‘Proud of these guys for traveling to D.C to see our president,'” said Hamblin.
She said it wasn’t long before she was getting called to check her social media pages.
“When I looked, I saw a post that took a picture of Amazing Glazed on Facebook, they put it together side by side and said, ‘I’ll never spend another penny at this store. They supported what happened at the capitol,'” she said.
That post spread like wildfire, garnering thousands of shares on Facebook and Twitter.
Hamblin said people also began bashing her shop on Google reviews. She said things got so bad she had to delete the businesses’ social media pages altogether.
She said the viral post doesn’t depict the actual story. She said her husband and his friends were on their way home before the chaos at the Capitol erupted. While she supports peaceful protest, she said she doesn’t support violence or destruction of any kind.
“I do not condone what happened at the Capitol at all,” Hamblin said.
She said she has reported the threats to police and has turned over the numbers of those who called.