A crewmember on a yacht docked in Seattle says a woman bearing a syringe stabbed him outside a bar last week, the Seattle Police Department reported to KIROtv.com. The victim described the woman as white, late 20s, with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair. After stabbing the victim, she pronounced, "Welcome to the HIV club," before she walked away with her companion, a man wearing a baseball cap and about her same age. The incident, described by police as "unprovoked," occurred on Sept. 17 at 12:15 a.m. in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, home to the city’s least conventional personalities and self-proclaimed “Center of the Universe.”

The victim was standing beside his girlfriend when he felt a sharp prick on his arm at the same time he looked up to see his attacker. As she walked off, the victim looked down and saw blood on his arm and was so shocked by what had happened, he was unable to chase her. Both he and his girlfriend, who also heard the comment about HIV, are crewmembers on the yacht and citizens of the United Kingdom. The victim didn’t report the incident to the police until two days later, immediately after it occurred he should visit Harborview Medical Center for treatment. Police told KIROtv.com on Tuesday afternoon they did not know if the man had been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

If the victim has been infected, the woman could be found guilty of a Class A felony under Washington law as the state ranks among a total of 35 states that have enacted laws to criminalize and punish HIV-positive people for exposing others to the virus.

As reported by ProPublica, Washington State classifies criminal infection, such as when a person exposes or transmits HIV with “intent to inflict great bodily harm,” as assault in the first degree. While some argue these laws provide a disincentive for people to get tested for HIV — better to unknowingly infect others than to learn your status and possibly be subject to criminal action — the general public as well as those with HIV often support the laws. For instance, a survey conducted in 2010 of HIV-positive people found 54 percent and 87 percent believed it should be a crime for an HIV-positive person to have condom-protected sexual intercourse or unprotected intercourse, respectively, with an uninformed partner.

“We’ve never heard of anything like this in Seattle before,” said Seattle Police Detective Patrick Michaud. “Hopefully, this was just somebody with a very poor sense of humor trying to scare someone in a way that is totally inappropriate.” Michaud said the Seattle police believe this incident to be a random and unprovoked event, according to KOMO.com, as the victim told them he and the other crew members had not angered anyone that night.