When Burger King botched his order, a Georgia sheriff called in deputies.
Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens, who is running for re-election this year, dispatched his deputies to the Burger King on Veterans Memorial Highway in Mableton on March 4, 2023, to assist with his bungled order, according to body camera footage acquired by WSB-TV. Owens’ opponent in the forthcoming race is calling the sheriff’s actions a misuse of his authority.
Three deputies were sent to the fast food outlet with sirens blasting.
Deputies approached Owens in his pickup, which was parked in the restaurant parking lot. Owens was not wearing his uniform or driving his sheriff’s vehicle.
“Do me a favor. “All I need is the owner’s or manager’s name,” Owens tells one deputy.
“I wanted her [to get his female passenger] a Whopper, no mayo, cut in half, right?” He kept going.
The sheriff added, “I don’t need no dang money back anymore. “I just need to find out who owns this place so I can file an official complaint.”
Without questioning why the sheriff was unable to obtain the information himself, the deputies approached the restaurant’s doors, but the staff had locked themselves inside.
The personnel were eventually persuaded to open the doors and allow the deputies inside.
“Nobody is in trouble; we just need some names,” one deputy informed the assistant manager.
“There won’t be a report written,” the deputy said. “That guy out there, he’s just going to file a complaint for his food.”
After learning the identity of the manager and the business that owns the Burger King, the deputies left the establishment and returned to the sheriff.
A deputy informed the sheriff that the staff were concerned because furious customers had previously escalated into stalking.
The sheriff laughs and inquires, “You didn’t tell him who I was, did you?”
“No. “I just told him it was the guy out in the truck,” the deputy said.
Owens is up for re-election this year, and his competitor, David Cavender, shared the video on Facebook on Friday.
“I think it’s an abuse of power,” Mike Dondelinger, Cavender’s planned chief deputy, told WSB-TV.
Dondelinger described the incident as a display of intimidation and a waste of resources.
“I’m shocked the sheriff feels so flippant about this issue that he would have deputies run lights and sirens, placing citizens at risk and his deputies at risk, just so he could get information from a business owner that clearly could have been followed up on another day,” Dondelinger told me.
However, the sheriff believes it was a business dispute that any citizen may raise.
“I was not in my uniform, and at no point in my interaction with the staff did I identify myself as a member of the law enforcement community,” he told the television station WSB. “At no point did I indicate my position, nor did I ask the responders to do anything that they would not, had not, or have not done for anyone else who makes a business dispute call.”
Owens also claims that the incident is being politicized in this election year.
“Whether as a Command Sergeant Major, or a major in the Cobb Police Department, or as sheriff, I have always worked to build confidence and trust in leadership,” according to him. “To our citizens and residents, it is clear that I need to work harder, and I pledge to do so.”
“Anything that takes away from that mission is a distraction, and for that, I am deeply sorry,” Owens told the crowd.
Article Source: Georgia sheriff calls deputies for help after becoming upset that Burger King got his order wrong
+ There are no comments
Add yours