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Bobby Handmaker, owner of the Tex-Mex restaurant Cruisers Grill in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, is now being accused of mistreating his customers. These are the events that led up to this moment.
On Monday, Handmaker was supposedly pulled over by a local cop and ticketed for his expired license registration. The restaurant owner claimed that the officer had shoved a flashlight into his face and “bull[ied]” him by giving him a ticket, instead of just a warning.
Later that day, the alarm at Handmaker’s restaurant, Cruisers Grill, went off, attracting officers to the scene.
Handmaker admitted that he’d set off the alarm by accident, but then asked to speak with the officers before they left. It was then that he accused all of them for being “bullies,” giving out tickets where warnings would be more than sufficient.
The officers reassured Handmaker that they would report this incident to their supervisor, to which Handmaker retorted that his employees had been spitting into their meals for quite some time now. He knew, but he hadn’t stopped them.
His explanation, “And now I know why, because you are all bullies!”
When Police Chief Patrick Dooley heard about the restaurant scene from his team, he sent out a memo, cautioning his team if they chose to eat at Cruisers Grill. He wanted to warn them for health and safety reasons.
When these allegations became known to the public, Handmaker quickly backtracked as he realized many of his faithful customers were also becoming wary of the establishment.
Handmaker now says that he had gotten into a disagreement with an officer, but none of his employees had ever spit into a cop’s food – nor the food of any other customer.
“My employees have never done anything like this ever,” he reassured everyone on a TV interview. “There was a disagreement between an officer and myself and it gone blown out of proportion. We take a lot of pride in doing what we do, we have a lot of passion and that’s why we’re here. These allegations are patently false.”
While customers express their disgust, restaurant employees are hurt and upset by the accusations, explaining that they have all been proud to serve the restaurant for so many years and hate to see their supportive team and community be slandered by these “false statements.”
Come Tuesday morning, Handmaker personally went to the police office to apologize for the ruckus he’d caused.
You can watch the full report here:
