Cookie Shop Employee Suspended For Buying Police Officer A Brownie
A teenage employee working at a Great American Cookies in Texas was allegedly suspended last week for offering to buy a police officer's cookie, his mother says. Now the company and manager have apologized and say the employee was in the right the whole time.
According to ABC News, 18-year-old Zack Randolph works at the cookie shop at the Katy Mills Mall, and the controversy began last week when an on-duty police officer came up to the counter to buy a brownie. According to a Facebook post by Randolph's mother, the teenager reportedly offered to pay for the brownie with his own money as a token of gratitude for the police officer's service.
After that, however, the employee's mother says the next people in line asked if he was going to pay for their order as well. Randolph's mother asserts that when he said only paid for the brownie because the previous customer was a police officer, the next customers accused him of being a racist and threatened to beat him up.
Randolph's mother wrote that her son was suspended for a week after the incident, and she says he was told that if he did anything like that again he'd be fired.
Now both the corporate offices of Great American Cookies and the owner of the specific location Randolph works at have issued statements apologizing to Randolph and saying he was in the right the whole time.
"It was never an issue that he purchased a brownie for a police officer, but rather the events that unfolded with another customer in line at the time," said Biju George of VKC Refreshments, which owns and operates the Great American Cookies location in question. "However, after further review, we realize that the employee was in fact in the right and we continue to reach out to him and his mom to issue an apology. The corrective action and suspension was reversed immediately and we hope to connect with him today."
"Great American Cookies proudly supports Law Enforcement, First Responders and all who serve our country," said David Kaiser, executive vice president at Great American Cookies.