Well, it’s happened again: police officers being refused service at a local establishment. This time it was a Whataburger in Lewisburg, Texas. Fox 4 News, which covers North Texas, reported that the local Whataburger refused to serve Officers Michael Magovern and Cameron Beckham last Tuesday when both men were on security at a construction site. Both officers were off-duty at the time. The two men were about to give their order when the employee said, “we don’t serve police officers.” The two officers went to a nearby Dairy Queen instead. Whataburger has since issued an apology and fired the employee in question:
A Whataburger employee has been fired after turning away two North Texas police officers from a Lewisville location.[…]
Whataburger apologized in a statement released midday Wednesday.
"We were appalled to hear of an employee refusing service to two officers, as we have proudly served first responders across our system for decades. As soon as we heard of this isolated incident, we began our own internal investigation overnight. The employee that refused service is no longer employed with Whataburger. We've also invited the officers back today so we can apologize in person and make this right."
Officer Magovern said he still loves Whataburger and doesn’t want to throw them under the bus. He believes this is a problem with one location or one employee.
“We’ve seen it on social media. We heard it on the news. You know, 17 years as a firefighter and now 13 years as a police officer this is the first time this has ever happened to me,” he said.
The article added that the now ex-employee was joking around. This wasn’t a kid either; it was a man in his 50s who had worked at that establishment for quite some time. He had worked his way into a managerial position before his termination. His family describes him as a jokester. Well, he learned a tragic lesson, and one that was entirely avoidable.
This is one of many instances in which officers have been refused service or been treated extraordinarily poorly. In Newton, Kansas, a Taco Bell employee wrote “PIGS” on the wrappers of an order that was given to a police officer. That employee was also fired and the fast food chain delivered an apology to the local police department. In Pembroke Pine, Florida, a local Arby’s found itself at the center of controversy when a police officer was denied service. The clerk was placed on suspension, the manager was fired, and Arby’s also released an apology as well. The parties involved also allege they were joking around.
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