When most people think about bullying, they think of it as an issue that children face in schools. However, what many do not realize is that incidents of adults being victims of bullying in their places of work have become increasingly common as of late.

Mary Katherine Backstrom was stunned when she recently saw bullying happen right before her eyes while she was out shopping, and she knew she had to do something about it.

Mary was standing in a checkout line when she noticed some teenagers in front of her giggling and taking photos of the cashier, who suffered from a deformity. She wasn’t about to let the smug kids get away with bullying the poor man.

“The man who was working checkout had had some kind of severe cranial reconstructive surgery,” she said. “He had staples in his head. His head was just deformed, and his eye was drooping, and he looked like he had a very devastating accident and surgery.”

Mary followed the teens out of the store and confronted them.

“You were being very cruel to that man,” she told them. Though the kids did apologize, this was not enough for Mary, as she was sure they would share the photos they took and come back to the store to bully the man again.

“Then my heart starts racing because I realize I don’t know how this mom’s going to react to me saying something to her,” she said.

Though she was nervous to tell the parents of the kids, she also knew it had to be done. Seconds later, the boys’ mother drove up in her minivan, and Mary told her what happened.

The mother did not seem very fazed by this, however, and she simply thanked Mary for letting her know. This was enough to satisfy Mary though.

“I just wanted to say to the lady whose kid just acted like a complete butthole in Target that you’re a really good mom,” she said.

“If my kids are ever in Target being buttholes or bullies or making fun of people, I hope you do the same thing,” Mary concluded. “It’s hard to hear criticisms from other parents or hear your kids are acting contrary to how you know you’ve raised them, but that’s part of them growing up.”

We applaud Mary for taking a stand for this cashier! Find out more about what she did in the video below, and SHARE this story if you are against bullying!