It's not uncommon to come across stories about a customer being treated poorly while visiting a restaurant, but rarely do situations escalate to a point where a customer is physically attacked by an employee.
Last weekend, a video surfaced online showing a man getting water dumped on him while sleeping at a table in a Dunkin' Donuts store in Syracuse, New York.
Turns out, both the assailant and the person tasked with recording the prank were workers at the store.
The incident
Apparently, the man, identified as Jeremy Dufresne, is homeless and was previously asked by the employee to not sleep inside the store.
"How many times I've got to tell you to stop sleeping in here?" the employee said, while the other laughs. "You're here all day."
A visibly shaken Dufresene is then seen grabbing his wet cellphone and charger and is heard muttering that he fell asleep by accident.
The employee replied that he won't be calling the cops, but nonetheless, he wants Dufresne to leave.
According to the Post-Standard, he suffers from schizophrenia and only went into the store to charge his phone so he could call his mother and say goodnight.
That poor guy. You never know what someone is going through in life. 😔 ☹ï¸â˜¹ï¸!!!SYRACUSE, NY Dunkin' Donuts. This shouldn't happen to people. No one deserves to go through this in life. Here's a go fund me of $150 to get him a new set of clothes and a meal and phone charger!!! https://www.gofundme.com/man-sleeping-at-syracuse-dunkin&rcid=r01-153839668215-c35ae183d8e54db1&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_m
Posted by Samuel Breazeale on Sunday, September 30, 2018
The disturbing video went viral shortly after it was posted and has racked up over three million views. Social media users from all over have condemned the worker's inhumane actions and asked for the company to fire him.
Social media reaction
"This dude should get firedddddddddd," wrote one Facebook user. "Fire him! I'm done with Dunkin Donuts if they treat people like this. You don't know that mans hardships," one woman wrote.
"No employee should ever do this, this is beyond sickening and I hope they fired him," another added.
"That poor guy. You never know what someone is going through in life. 😔☹ï¸â˜¹ï¸!!!SYRACUSE, NY Dunkin' Donuts. This shouldn't happen to people. No one deserves to go through this in life," wrote Samuel Breazeale, the man who posted the video.
The awful incident caught the attention of homeless advocate Al-Amin Muhammed, who has since visited the store and said a boycott would follow if the employees weren't dealt with.
"My message was to them that nobody deserves to be treated like this because I was treated like this when I was homeless," he said.
Dunkin' takes action
Dunkin', as they prefer to be called nowadays, have since addressed the controversy and confirmed that the employees involved have been fired.
A statement from Kimberly Wolak, Dunkin' franchisee and chief operating officer of The Wolak Group, read:
"We were extremely disturbed by the behavior of our employees captured in the video. It not only violated our written policies, but goes against our core values as an organization "“ which include creating a welcoming and hospitable environment and treating everyone with dignity and respect."
The company added that they will be working with local advocates and training their employees on how to better interact with those who are homeless.
Despite the humiliation he was subjected to, Dufresne doesn't harbor any hard feeling towards the employees.
"He probably had some personal problems of his own and needed someone to talk to and he took it out on someone else, like me," he told Syracuse.com.
Breazeale and Muhammed have also set up a GoFundMe for Dufresne and have raised over $13,000 so far. If you'd like to help, you can click here to make a contribution.
