An employee at fast-food chain Whataburger has been fired after he refused to serve two Texas law enforcement officers on Tuesday, saying, “We don’t serve police officers.”
Cameron Beckham and Michael Magovern, who work for separate agencies, were off duty and working night shift security at a construction site, when they went to the Lewisville, Texas restaurant.
Beckham told the Star-Telegram newspaper when they entered Whataburger, the “first words we hear are, ‘We don’t serve police officers here.'”
“We were just kind of in shock,” he said. “Law enforcement officers are getting tired of this stuff.”
The officers reported the employee to the corporate branch before they got back to work, and got dinner at Dairy Queen instead.
The unnamed employee, who was fired by the company, told local ABC affiliate WFAA the comment was meant as a joke, which he tried to explain to the officers before they left.
“I thought, ‘Oh man, this is a shame – all over a joke,'” he told WFAA. “I’m joking around with the police, and I lose my job, something I’ve had over nine years.”
The employee also told the station one of the cops told him, “We’re going to make you a star” over the incident.
Whataburger responded a day later on Facebook, calling it an “isolated incident” that “We were appalled to hear” about.
The run-in comes the same month an Arby’s store manager was fired and a clerk suspended indefinitely after refusing to serve a police officer in Florida.
