A tense exchange inside a property mailroom has gone viral, capturing a standoff between a Black man trying to collect his package and an Asian woman who refused to let him proceed without an access code — despite his insistence that he lived there.
The man who filmed the encounter later posted the footage to a TikTok account under the name jaden_avenido. He also appeared in two follow-up videos responding to critics who argued he mishandled the situation and made it about race when the woman was only “doing her job,” many people said. The loudest critics said, “I wouldn’t want someone without a code in the coded room either.”
It was just the latest viral video to leave social media sharply divided. Was the man at fault for not knowing the property’s mailroom code and expecting the employee to simply take him at his word? Or was the woman wrong for going to extremes and taking her job too seriously?
Many commenters defended her actions, pointing to the rise in package thefts and “porch pirates” as justification for stopping the man in his tracks.
“Seems like she’s doing her job?” someone wrote.
Others argued the woman escalated needlessly and let bias get in the way of basic decency.
“You can see the hate in her eyes,” another person observed, highlighting the divide over what happened.
The video, which begins mid-confrontation, shows the man calmly trying to reason with the woman. “Why are you being so difficult? I just need my package,” he says, but is met with silence and a cold stare.
The woman — described by many viewers as overly rigid — refused to engage, instead looking at the man as if to question why he was even there. Though he repeatedly stated that he was a resident, she appeared unmoved.
Despite the man’s persistence, she stood firm.
Some observers praised the “package police” for her unwillingness to budge.
With an incredulous look that signaled no-nonsense, she gave the clear impression that no exceptions would be made for him, resident or not.
“Can I just get my package?” the man asked again, growing visibly frustrated.
The standoff took a turn when a Black woman, presumably the property manager, entered the area. The employee quickly called out to her, attempting to take control of the situation.
“Hey, Nikki,” she said. “We have this gentleman here who’s trying to get in. He doesn’t have a code.”
She added: “He doesn’t even know he needed a code. I let him into the mailroom, and I’m at a liability, but he can’t produce a code.”
Throughout the entire interaction, the Asian woman never offered to help the man locate his package. But the manager calmly cut through the tension. “He lives here,” she said plainly, and the room fell dead silent as her words hung in the air.
Her voice was quiet, but the words carried weight. “Yeah, he does,” she reaffirmed.
At one point, the man dipped his face into the frame to say, “Nikki knows me.”
Many people online recognized this as the moment when the woman’s oversized ego wilted away.
“No apology and notice the change in her tone once she found out he lives there. From condescending to silence,” one voice echoed.
The manager gently stepped in to defuse the situation, saying, “But I can help him,” before adding a conciliatory, “But I appreciate it.”
The unnamed woman spoke up again: “Yeah, that would be great if you could help this gentleman,” she said.
The man then turned the camera on himself with a funny look.
He and the manager greeted each other warmly before she led him to an adjacent room where his package awaited.
In the videos explaining his side of the story, jaden_avenido offered a rambling and disjointed explanation, saying he had received a notification from the shipper that his package had been delivered and showed up at the mailroom within 10 minutes to retrieve it. He explained that the usual process involves sorting all packages, placing them in lockers, and then sending the residents a code — typically taking several hours. But knowing his package had just arrived, he gambled on the property manager, Nikki, being there, figuring he could skip the usual wait because he was acquainted with her. Instead, he walked into a brick wall.
He described the woman who stood in his way as a Karen, saying she was “hostile” from the jump and that she never tried to provide good customer service. However, many commenters said the man deserved the blame for twisting the woman’s vigilance into another episode deserving of social media attention.
“Every situation isn’t a Karen situation,” one person observed on the thread.
“She’s in the right and you are the Karen,” another wrote. “I really hope you would stop a person from entering your apartment’s mail room, if you knew a code was required and they wanted in without knowing it.”
