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A Los Angeles-area employee at fast casual pizza chain Pieology has been fired after leaving an inflammatory note on a police officer’s receipt. The incident happened at one of the chain’s locations in the South Bay, but it wasn’t officially outed until days later when a photograph of the receipt began making the rounds on social media.
According to NBC Los Angeles, a Torrance Police officer stopped in to a nearby location of Pieology for lunch last Thursday, and quickly realized that an employee had left a note on the receipt (a space usually reserved for typing in someone’s name) that read: “Fuck the cops.” He returned to his precinct with the receipt and began showing it to others before it was ultimately posted on Facebook and shared wide.
Pieology says that they were unaware of the incident until it came to their attention on social media, but that they took swift action to identify the employee involved. That person has since been terminated from their job and Pieology did issue a statement, though they continue to get dragged online. That statement reads, in part:
We are extremely disappointed in the actions of one of our employees earlier today and apologize on behalf of the entire Pieology family for this upsetting situation. We worked quickly to address the situation, which included immediate termination of the employee.
Please know we find this situation completely inexcusable, and it does not in any way reflect the opinions and values of Pieology.
In the fast-paced world of restaurants and social media, watching brands get uncomfortable at the inexcusable actions of their employees is nothing new. Sometimes it’s just workers being jerks, other times there are even more nefarious things at work. No matter what though, the Pieology incident is a good reminder to always keep receipts.