Little Village Magazine tells a story about Sweatshirt Man being seen pasting stickers onto lampposts and trashcans and other items of public property. According to the article, another man saw him doing this, followed him around, and took off the various stickers.
People eventually began following Sweatshirt Man around, who quickly pulled his hoodie over his face and ran into the nearby MERGE coworking space near the Iowa City Public Library:
The hoodie had the image of Pepe the Frog on it. The cartoon frog has become a popular symbol among alt-right activists and white supremacists. “I asked him what he was doing. I said, ‘If it’s okay to be white, why are you hiding your face?... He didn’t say anything, he just kept walking.” (He) followed the man, who headed to MERGE, the coworking space located next to the Iowa City Public Library.Two guys follwed Sweatshirt Man into MERGE. One was kicked out of the building, but the other man managed to corner Sweatshirt Man in an empty conference room.
Sweatshirt Man ended up calling his girlfriend and the police for assistance. The police arrived and eventually de-escalated the situation. As for the girlfriend?:
“I was standing outside MERGE looking through the photos I’d taken, when a young woman in a blue hoodie came up to me... She asked if I’d taken photos of her boyfriend. I asked her if her boyfriend was the one putting up the white supremacist stickers... She said, ‘Yes,’ and that he’d called her saying he was in MERGE. She said she wanted me to delete the photos, because this whole thing was traumatic for them... She said he’s not a racist, he just likes to do these things to get a rise out of people.”Don't get me wrong. I have no doubt that this guy was just trying to yank the collective chain of a bunch of strangers. But I'm really shocked at how cowardly he was reported to be when approached by anyone about his attention-seeking behavior.