Customer throws doughnuts at Texas restaurant employee over mask policy, video shows
Surveillance footage from a Texas doughnut shop appears to show a woman lash out at the restaurant’s workers over their face mask policy.
The incident happened Sunday at The Dapper Doughnut shop in El Paso, an employee says. A confrontation led the customer to throw her box of doughnuts back at the workers, video shows.
Lauren Keener, a shift supervisor, said the woman and her husband were asked to put on their masks while waiting for their doughnut order. El Paso has required people to wear face coverings inside public places due to the coronavirus pandemic since June.
The woman and her husband continued to defy the restaurant’s request and were asked to wait outside if they would not comply, Keener said.
Photos obtained by McClatchy show the couple waiting inside the restaurant with masks below their mouths.
“After her doughnuts were ready she confronted our employee with, ‘You shouldn’t talk to customers like that’ and proceeded to throw the box of doughnuts at our employee,” Keener told McClatchy News.
Video obtained by McClatchy shows the woman hurl the box over the counter’s plexiglass. It narrowly missed the worker.
The couple exited the store but the husband came back a minute later to ask for a refund, Keener said.
“The employee gave him the manager’s number, but he decided to steal a coffee tumbler instead,” Keener said. Video also appears to show the man take an object before leaving the store.
El Paso police were notified of the incident, according to Keener. The couple was not identified. McClatchy has reached out to El Paso police for a comment.
Keener told KTSM the store has struggled with customers ignoring the face mask rule but added that they will continue to enforce it.
“There are always those people that like to get confrontational with you even if it’s just verbally and they’ll say ‘fine I’ll just leave home without doughnuts today,’ and I’ll say that’s fine. I’m just trying to keep my employees and customers safe as possible,” Keener told the TV station.