Whataburger has decided to fire an employee for his refusal to serve two police officers and issued an apology to the officers as well as local law enforcement as a whole for the incident.
The incident allegedly occurred Tuesday evening at a Whataburger in Texas. Officers Michael Magovern and Cameron Beckham were taking a break from working overnight traffic security at a construction site and decided to go to the restaurant to grab something to eat, according to Yahoo! News. However, before they could even place an order, an employee behind the register said, " We don't serve police officers."
"He said it with a straight face, no smile and just stared at us. Even if he was joking, I'm not going to eat here because I don't trust that," Magovern told CBS Texas affiliate CBS DFW.
Unable to receive service, the two officers went to Dairy Queen. The next day, Whataburger invited them for lunch.
The company also issued a statement on Facebook, revealing that it fired the employee in question: "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."
The officers later met with Whataburger executives on Wednesday to discuss the incident.
Magovern didn't take the incident too personally and still intends to eat at the chain in the future, but Beckham expressed concerns about the burger store in light of the incident, saying: "It really strikes a nerve personally and professionally because maybe he's joking or maybe he's not, but how do we trust that individual or that company to cook anyone's food now?"
