Chick Fil A outlet under fire for throwing out homeless man trying to buy food
A Chick Fil A outlet in Miami has came under fire after a viral video filmed inside the outlet showed security removing a man who appeared to be homeless and eating at the fast-food joint.
The short video clip shared by TikTok user Pineda Lainez with the username @pinedalainez884 showed a Miami police officer walking towards a man who was sitting and eating his meal at a table in the corner of the outlet.
The clip did not show the man walking or being forced out, but the overlay text in Spanish read: “They kicked the man out for being homeless when he paid for the food.”
Social media users were left concerned after watching the video, and called the incident “heartbreaking” and “wrong”.
“This is so heartbreaking because he even chose to eat in the last seat, far away from everyone,” a user @wendyseatingshow wrote, “If I was there I would have spoken up for him.”
“This is so wrong on so many different levels. They should feel ashamed for even doing something like that to a paying customer,” another user said.
The video, that has collected more than 344,000 views, prompted backlash and forced the outlet to issue a clarification from its Facebook page in a reply to one of the users who shared the video in an unconnected post.
The Miami Central Chick-fil-A outlet said the man was issued a trespass warrant for the location as he had previously “spit on guests and is verbally hostile”.
“We apologise for any misunderstanding and acknowledge that this situation does seem inappropriate out of context, however, we hope this clears up any confusion about what is actually occurring in the clip,” the statement read.
“What occurred in this video was a safety issue, this individual regularly displays dangerous and erratic behaviour in our store,” it added.
“We are committed to taking action and helping the homeless population in our community on a regular basis.”
The statement also clarified they did not call police to their stories.
The person seen in the video was an off-duty Miami police officer they hire to secure their facilities on-site daily, according to the outlet.
