Two employees at a fast food chain in North Carolina were terminated after one of them allegedly refused to serve a police officer, WNCN reports.
Roxboro Police Chief David Hess told the station that one of his officers, who is also a veteran, dropped by burger chain Cook Out last Thursday morning when a cashier denied him service. Taren Woods, the manager on shift at the time, confirmed the incident to WNCN.
"I didn't know nothing — that it was that serious until the next day I heard the cashier got fired because she didn't take the cop’s order," she said.
The unidentified cashier had allegedly asked a coworker to help the cop instead — a move that is allowed under company policy, Woods said. When the second worker went to assist the officer, the cop reportedly asked what happened to the cashier and left. It is unclear why the cashier refused to serve the officer in the first place.
Woods told WNCN that she was working in the back when the encounter occurred. She went back to the restaurant the next day, only to learn from her boss that she too had been fired from her job.
"He told me he had to let me go because I didn't take control of the situation, saying how I should have gone outside to take the cop's order," Woods, who had reportedly worked at Cook Out for 10 years, explained. "Mind you, it was midnight and policy states that we’re not allowed outside the building after 9:45. So why would I go outside to chase down a cop?"
Hess told the station that the department did not ask for the employees to be fired but that Cook Out had made the decision on its own. Still, Woods said her termination was unjustified.
"It is frustrating because it’s a lie," she said. "And they got all this stuff stirred up. And I lost my job and I've got four kids and it’s Christmas time. So yeah, that’s not fair at all."
