Marine Charged After Three Women Report Being Doused With Bodily Fluids at San Diego Dollar Tree, Chain Now Faces Lawsuit

Three women shopping at the same Dollar Tree on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in San Diego say a man got close behind them, and each later found a substance smeared on her clothes. One says she found it in her hair too. That's according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, which first reported the case.

The incidents happened over two separate weekends in March 2025. San Diego police have since charged a 22-year-old Marine based locally with misdemeanor lewd conduct and misdemeanor sexual battery tied to all three reports.

His attorney, Isaac Blumberg, says his client denies wrongdoing. Blumberg told the Union-Tribune that "the record at this point consists entirely of one side's allegations, none of which have been tested in court." Nobody has been convicted of anything here. These are charges, not a verdict.

The Lawsuit

One of the three women is now suing Dollar Tree in San Diego Superior Court. Her attorney, Clemency Condry, says the woman tried to get surveillance footage from the store after her encounter and was told by a manager that the camera covering that aisle wasn't working.

If true, that's a real problem. A retail chain with cameras installed but not maintained isn't much better than having no cameras at all. It gives customers a false sense of security and gives police less to work with when something happens.

The lawsuit isn't just about one broken camera in one store. It argues Dollar Tree left customers vulnerable to predators, according to the Union-Tribune's reporting on the case.

A Bigger Pattern

This isn't isolated to San Diego. At least 11 women nationwide, including the three from Clairemont Mesa, have described similar encounters inside Dollar Tree stores, according to the affidavit cited by the Union-Tribune.

The court filing goes further, alleging that videos of these incidents have shown up on pornography websites and that the behavior has spawned a "SoundCloud track, cryptocurrency coin and custom Pokémon card." If accurate, that's a genuinely disturbing detail. It suggests a subculture has formed around filming and sharing these assaults, which turns victims into unwitting content for strangers.

Condry told the Union-Tribune that some women have posted videos online to shame the men involved, but she warns that approach can backfire. Publicizing the clips, she says, can hand the perpetrators exactly the attention they were after in the first place.

What's Missing From the Coverage

The available reporting doesn't say whether Dollar Tree has issued a public statement responding to the lawsuit or the underlying allegations. It also doesn't detail what security measures, if any, the company has taken at the Clairemont Mesa location or its other stores since these reports surfaced.

The Marine's criminal charges are specific to the three San Diego incidents. The other eight cases cited nationally in the affidavit are separate allegations, not established facts tied to a single suspect or a proven pattern of coordinated conduct. Whether those cases involve copycats, unrelated individuals, or some connected group isn't established in what's been reported.

Where This Stands

The criminal case against the Marine is pending. No trial date has been reported. The civil suit against Dollar Tree is in its early stages in San Diego Superior Court.

For Dollar Tree, the bigger exposure may not be this one lawsuit. It's the question of whether the company knew, or should have known, about a pattern before March 2025, and whether a working security camera at one store might have made a difference in identifying a suspect faster. That's the question a jury, if it gets that far, will eventually have to answer.