A Houston woman shopping for Christmas decorations in early December 2023 had no idea she would become one of dozens of victims in what law enforcement and legal experts now describe as a disturbing national trend. She arrived at a Dollar Tree in an affluent neighborhood early one morning, hoping to find props for her doggy daycare business photoshoot. Instead, she encountered a man who followed her through the aisles, made graphic sexual remarks, and ultimately ejaculated on her as she waited outside the store.
When she reported the incident to store staff, a clerk responded with a chilling phrase in Spanish that revealed the scope of the problem: "Tenemos otra." We've got another one.
What began as one woman's traumatic experience unraveled into evidence of a coordinated online subculture turning sexual assault into a competitive game. Attorneys investigating the Houston incident discovered similar attacks at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar locations across Colorado Springs, San Diego, Miami, and at least a dozen other cities dating back to 2017. Some victims were shopping with young children. One perpetrator was a newly hired sheriff's deputy. Another worked for Dollar Tree itself.
The assaults fall under terminology used in online forums: "tagging" or "sharking," with some perpetrators referring to their victims as "cum-sharked." Men in these communities celebrate attackers as "low inhibition" and boast about their fearlessness. One user posting under the name "Goon-God" offered more than 200 sharking videos for $25 on an amateur porn website, complete with promotional footage allegedly showing an assault at a Dollar Tree.
The attackers identify with a broader online subculture known as "gooners," men bonded by obsessive masturbation compulsion who typically operate in private "goon caves." While most restrict their behavior to solo activity, some have turned Dollar Tree stores into hunting grounds and documented their crimes on OnlyFans pages and pornography sites.
Dollar Tree's structural vulnerabilities appear to make the chain an attractive target. The company has faced federal scrutiny for years over inadequate security, chronic understaffing, and cluttered aisles packed with unopened boxes that provide cover for criminal activity. When asked about the phenomenon, a Dollar Tree spokesperson stated the company takes such incidents extremely seriously and cooperates fully with law enforcement, but did not address specifics of individual cases.
The assaults represent what legal consultants describe as a "gamification" of sexual abuse, where isolated, angry men pool their resentment of women in online forums and compete for recognition. The dynamic mirrors broader patterns of misogyny extending beyond involuntary celibate communities to men motivated by unfulfilled sexual desire, unrestricted access to pornography, and the allure of internet fame.
Criminologists and sociologists studying the phenomenon say the public nature of these attacks serves a specific purpose. "Masturbating over someone in public is done and filmed for the purposes of humiliating women and also receiving attention and accolades from other men," explains Michael Halpin, a sociologist at Dalhousie University who studies male incel culture and gender-based crime. "The community applauds it, supports it, uplifts it and calls for more acts like it."
The trend picked up velocity in mid-2024 when a woman in Philadelphia captured her own attack on video. As she chased her assailant out of the store, screaming about the assault, the footage went viral. Rapper Meek Mill reposted the video offering a $2,000 reward, leading 35-year-old Gary Miles to turn himself in within hours. He pleaded guilty to indecent exposure, open lewdness, and indecent assault.
Following the Philadelphia incident, "dollar store gooner" became an internet meme that spread far beyond the closed world of the perpetrators themselves. A cryptocurrency token bearing the name launched in January 2025. An unofficial Pokemon card followed. An underground noise band from Tennessee released a song about the phenomenon on SoundCloud.
The visibility has only accelerated the problem. Another viral video emerged from a coffee shop in Tempe, Arizona, showing a man masturbating at a drive-through window while ordering from a female barista. Experts note a historical precedent: Japan experienced a similar wave of sharking attacks roughly 15 years ago that attracted online audiences before eventually subsiding.
What has shifted in the digital age, according to University of Alabama criminologist Adam Lankford, is the instant accessibility of content designed to arouse in mundane settings. "To some fringe individuals, this form of provocative behavior, no matter how distasteful, can be seen as a ticket to their own form of attention," Lankford said.
Psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster, who teaches at the New School in New York, views the choice of location as significant. "A dollar store is the most abject place, where people who are already at the bottom go because they can't afford anything else," she said. "There's something about that that feels so sad and tragic."
Author James Rodriguez: "This reads like the endpoint of internet radicalization: taking degradation and turning it into sport. Until platforms stop amplifying this garbage and stores beef up basic security, Dollar Tree will keep attracting the worst of these guys."
Comments