A McDonald’s franchise in Detroit, located at the Grand River near Schaefer on the city’s west side, has announced that one of its employees who tricked a homeless man and subsequently threw a cup of water on him, has been fired.
In a video posted on social media, the unnamed employee is seen tricking a homeless man into thinking that he would get food through the drive-through area of the store, instead, when the homeless man got closer to the employee to receive the food, the employee threw water at him directly on his face.
The video of the incident went viral, with many viewers condemning the action of the employee and calling for his dismissal.
The video was said to have been shot by someone in a vehicle at the drive-through window. In the video, the dismissed employee called the homeless man, identified as a 63-year-old Willie Payne Jr., to come over for a sandwich. At first Payne refused, but after the employee held up the sandwich for him to see, he went over to get it.
The employee then tossed the cup of water on Payne, while the driver in the car recording the video laughed.
“Why’d you do that?” the wet and confused Payne asked the employee. Payne then walked away, very disturbed but powerless. The employee did not realize he had been filmed. He joined the driver to laugh and mock Payne. His face was clearly captured in the video.
Payne later told local media that the employee tricked him with the sandwich. He confirmed that he is indeed a homeless man and had no money to even buy food.
“I just walked away. Just made me a little upset and everything. You know, I barely have a little change to buy the things that I need. And I was thinking he was going to give me something, but he didn’t”, Action News quoted Payne as saying.
The owner of the store, Wise Finley, confirmed in a statement that the employee has been fired due to the public outrage and proceeded to say that it was unacceptable for the employee to have done what he did.
“I am very disturbed by the inappropriate behavior of this employee. This type of behavior is not tolerated in my organization. I expect my employees to treat everyone with dignity and respect, and this was unacceptable. This individual no longer works for my organization,” Finley said.
The Executive Director for the Homeless Action Network in Detroit, Tasha Gray, told the Detroit Free Press that the video is outrageous, adding that it is about time people have sympathy and compassion for people without a place to call their home.
She was quoted as saying, “I think we forget sometimes that people experiencing homelessness are just like you and I. We have working families who just don’t have enough means to make ends meet. I like to tell my staff that we’re one missed paycheck away from homelessness.”
It is unclear whether the Detroit police are looking into the incident for a possible assault charges against the employee, however, many people are urging the police to look into the incident and bring charges against the employee to serve as deterrent to others.
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Did it ever occur to the business owner to give that man a job?? Would go much farther in the eyes of the public and the poor man can have a bit of self respect again. Poor guy.
I think the f*** driver also should be charged in this. He was quite clearly enjoying himself. Probably even uploaded the video because he thought it was a fun thing. The silver lining in this is that at least now the world knows what happened.