By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — An employee of KFC, 4605 S. Telegraph Road, was fired following a confrontation with customers caught on video and posted to Facebook.
Tyler Bruton, Michael Jones, Chloe Mullen and Brent Phibbs visited the establishment to eat Jan. 19 when they had issues with their order.
Burton told WXYZ Channel 7, that when Jones went to the counter with cash in hand to order he told the employees they obviously didn’t hear them and that when he overheard the employee tell Jones he didn’t “have to have an attitude about it.”
“I’m sitting in the booth and I say, ‘You’ve had an attitude since we’ve walked in the door,’” Bruton told Channel 7.
Following the comments from the customers and employees, the now fired employee approached the table when Phibbs started recording.
The video was shared on Facebook by Phibbs on Jan. 19 and had 1 million views in addition to the 7,100 comments as of Jan. 24.
In the video, the employee tells Burton, “So you had something to say. I’m listening,” to which Burton responds, “Ain’t got nothing to say. As long as we’re done talking, I’m done talking.”
The employee tells Burton twice to hurry up to eat and get the (expletive deleted) out then says, “Eat. Don’t look at me. Look at your food” when Burton responds, “I’m trying. You’re in my face.”
As he continues to tell Burton to look at his food, the employee sits on the top of the booth next to Burton telling him, “Don’t make me rob you.” In response, Burton says “Rob me of what?” and, “You want it, take it,” while handing the employee his wallet.
The employee then says, “Give it to me. Put it in my hand (expletive deleted)” and then Burton says, “For what?” as the employee proceeds to poke Burton in the head.
After Burton is poked, Phibbs says, “Assault honey. I cannot wait until (police) show up.” The employee responds by saying, “(expletive deleted) the police. They can lick my (expletive deleted). I don’t give a (expletive deleted). Take you (expletive deleted) and get the (expletive deleted) out, you’ve been trying to antagonize these (expletive deleted),” and then the video becomes inaudible as Phibbs walks outside.
A phone call to local police can be heard being made as the video ends and Burton told Channel 7 that the now fired employee was arrested for assault after the video was shown to police.
Burton and Phibbs also told Channel 7 that the video is prompting death threats saying the men were making racial remarks to the KFC employees before the video recording began. They denied those claims.
KFC sent a statement to Channel 7 regarding the confrontation.
“The actions of the employee in this incident were unacceptable. The franchisee who owns the restaurant has terminated the employee.”
To watch the video go to www.facebook.com/phibbers/videos/10211208768969700.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)