Did you happen to catch this viral story over the Thanksgiving break?
It’s out of Kiefer, Oklahoma (near Tulsa) where the town’s police chief posted this image to Facebook showing how a Starbucks barista wrote his name in as “PIG” on his order of five cups of coffee he was taking to his dispatchers for a holiday treat:
Kiefer Police Chief Johnny O’Mara says one of his officers picked up five cups of coffee today at the Glenpool @Starbucks for his dispatchers, as a thank you for working on Thanksgiving.
“PIG” was printed on all five labels, he says. @NewsOn6 pic.twitter.com/tmEwid8JRc
— Amy Slanchik (@amyslanchik) November 28, 2019
The barista was eventually fired for the stunt:
A Starbucks statement said that the barista “wrote this offensive word,” used “poor judgment” and was ultimately fired for violating company policy https://t.co/zu9ZAy85Ea
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 1, 2019
This should be over and done with, but the tweet below has gone mega-viral with over 80,000 retweets and over 385,000 likes claiming it was the police department that lied:
starbucks has a profanity filter in place to prevent things like this from happening. the only way for the name “pig” to show up on a cup is for the customer to set that as their own name in the mobile order app. in other words, the pig cops faked this for a bullshit sob story https://t.co/zGYPhoTQr4
— the irishman 3D (@argumentwinner) November 30, 2019
You see the hyperlink “speculation on social media” below from this screenshot from the Time? Yep. That’s a link to @argumentwinner’s totally bogus tweet:
— Patterico (@Patterico) December 1, 2019
Even worse? The reporter he originally quote-tweeted has all the follow-up he needs for him to delete his BS and correct the record:
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UPDATE: Chief O'Mara says his officer received a phone call from the @Starbucks employee today who made the "pig" labels. He tells me she apologized, and said it was meant to be a joke between her and another co-worker.
— Amy Slanchik (@amyslanchik) November 29, 2019
.@Starbucks corporate headquarters just called me. An employee in the communications department informed me the employee in question in this incident has been suspended. @NewsOn6
— Amy Slanchik (@amyslanchik) November 29, 2019
NEW: @Starbucks and Kiefer PD release a joint statement, saying in part, “…Starbucks will be meeting with the Kiefer Police Department to begin discussing ways to work together, including a jointly hosted Coffee with a Cop event at Starbucks…” @NewsOn6
— Amy Slanchik (@amyslanchik) November 30, 2019
I just got off the phone with the officer, who does not want his name to be made public. He said he has never had a Starbucks account in his life, and paid for the drinks with his debit card.
— Amy Slanchik (@amyslanchik) December 1, 2019
Now let’s see how much longer this stays up. Screenshot for posterity:
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