A blind man has opened up about the awkward moment he was accused of staring at a woman in the gym.
Voice actor and social media star Pete Gustin is known online for not letting his visual impairment hold him back in life.
As well as working on and off-screen as an actor, he enjoys surfing, skateboarding, and wakeboarding.
But while Gustin is well known to his 1.29 million YouTube subscribers, he's not necessarily recognizable when he's going about his daily life at the gym.
In one instance that he described in a TikTok video around nine months ago, the social media star recalled how a woman accused him of predatory behavior because she didn't realize he was blind.
He began the clip by explaining: "I'm blind. If you know what those two words mean, then you're much smarter than the girl who was screaming at me at the gym."
"I'm standing there doing a tricep pushdown exercise and since I can't see I'm just kind of staring off into space doing my thing. Half-way through a set I start hearing footsteps that seem like they're coming in my direction getting closer and closer," Gustin described.
"Until all of a sudden, this woman is right up in my face going 'I didn't come here to be stared at'," he recalled.
The voice actor tried to explain, saying: "'Ohhhh, I'm sorry, I'm blind'." While this may have been a sufficient explanation for many people, the woman responded by saying that she didn't care and asked him again to stop staring.
After ranting at Gustin, the woman stormed off and returned shortly after with the gym manager.
Even when Gustin showed them his ID card - which confirms he is blind - the manager sided with the woman. According to the actor, they replied: "Okay, but you still can't make other gym members uncomfortable by looking at them."
Baffled, Gustin shared the story in a TikTok titled: "I was not staring at you. I promise," which has racked up over 18 million views.
While many viewers found Gustin's story hilarious, others were more concerned with figuring out why they recognized his voice. The voice actor has appeared on the likes of CBS, Fox News, ESPN, NFL, Cartoon Network, Fox, Comedy Central, and Major League Baseball.
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