A California woman is suing the sandwich franchise Subway after she found the word's "Big Mama" written on her order.
Allison Brown ordered a flatbread pizza from a Subway in Vista, California on March 27. When she pulled the pizza box out of the bag, she saw "Big Mama" written on the box in black marker, the New York Daily News reported.
Brown, 45, alerted the owner of the Subway location as to what happened. The owner "begged me not to go to the media," Brown told the newspaper.
Now, Brown is suing Subway under the state's unfair business practices law, calling for all employees to go through mandatory sensitivity training.
"I just broke down crying," Brown told the Daily News about when she first saw the words.
"I couldn't eat. I kept thinking, 'Big Mama,' doesn't need to eat. It started really messing with me. I started thinking, 'Maybe I need surgery. Do I really look that bad? What's wrong with me?" Brown said.
Brown said at first she tried to settle the matter with Subway.
"The owner said the employee didn't know better, that he just didn't get it," Brown told the Daily News.
"I tried to work with him, but then nobody was calling me back. It's not right. This really hurt me," she said.
Brown, a nursing assistant, called the franchise's headquarters and left a message, which was not returned. She went to a lawyer, who sent Subway a letter requesting sensitivity training for employees, the Daily News reported.
Subway said it has "zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind," and that "the franchise took immediate action to investigate and terminated the employee involved," the newspaper reported.
Subway offered Brown $5,000 as part of a confidentiality agreement. Brown refused the offer, saying it was not about the money.
"Here Subway promotes itself as a place for people who need help eating better, then this happens," Brown told the Daily News. "What if the wrong person got a box like mine? What if they saw that and tried to commit suicide?"
Brown's lawyer, Daniel Gilleon, told the newspaper he plans on filing the lawsuit within the coming weeks.
