Have you ever been to a restaurant and had a slight feeling that the waiter or waitress had sabotaged your food? Now thanks to social media and smartphones, there is proof that it happens.

The Mayfield Heights Burger King location made national headlines in 2012 when three workers were fired after a video of an employee standing in bins of lettuce was posted to social media.

Since then, there have been more cases of employees being filmed or photographed doing something they shouldn’t have and then facing consequences ranging from being fired to earning a felony.  

Comerica Park Pizza employee spits in pizza.

In September, at the Detroit baseball stadium called Comerica Park, an employee was recently arrested for spitting in a customer’s food. The video gained fame when it was posted on Instagram then shared. It showed the male employee spitting into the customer’s pizza. According to FOX news, the employee that posted the video said he did it “because the supervisor kept yelling at him.” 

After many complaints and bad reviews, the Detroit sportservice released a statement that “all the product was disposed of after the incident was brought to the company’s attention.” The food service also made a statement that “Food is top priority and we will take any appropriate action necessary to protect our guests.”  

The twenty one year old employee, Jaylon Kerley, was fired. He was arrested and had to undergo testing for communicable diseases.  He was charged with and pleaded guilty to a felony–a charge that could carry a jail sentence of up to four years.

Pita Pit employee spits on customer’s sandwich.

Another incident that took place was in Missoula, Montana, at a local restaurant by the name of Pita Pit. A video went viral showing an employee spitting into the customer’s pita sandwich.

The customer and employee, both women, were having altercation around 2am that allegedly started when the employee told the customers to leave because they were closing  (even though the store was scheduled to close at 3.) The argument escalated into the customer “daring” the employee to spit into her food. The altercation got worse and the customer threw the sandwich,  which instigated the employee to try to to climb over the counter and attack the customer.

The bystander that was filming the altercation said in her Facebook post that accompanied the video, “this racist [employee] spit in our food because apparently she was having a bad day and didn’t wanna be at work!”  When the video was posted on Facebook, the video quickly fame. The viral video has reached nearly 300,000 views on Facebook alone.

The owners of Pita Pit addressed the customer named ShaeLyn with an apology. The owners posted, “We are shocked and saddened by the early morning incident that took place in our restaurant. We have been unable to reach out on Messenger and apologize about it personally to the guest who posted about it. We would like to publicly do so.” The owner also added, “I am mortified that this happened to you and your friends in our establishment.”  The employee was immediately fired. 

Dunkin’ Donuts worker dumps water on homeless man.

At the start of October, a Dunkin Donuts employee  in Syracuse was fired after he dumped water on a homeless man. The employee was filmed pouring a pitcher of water on a man who was resting his head on a table. The video was posted onto Facebook and soon went viral.

The footage shows the employee confronting the man, Jeremy Dufresne, for resting his head on a table. Dufresne later explained that he went in to charge his cell phone to call his mom.  The employee comes  and dumps the water on him, causing the water to run down his head and back. The man jumps up and shakes the water off of his cellphone and himself. Several people laugh in the background, and the worker confronts him saying, “How many times have I got to tell you stop sleeping in here?” Soon after, the employee stated that he would not call the police to escort Mr. Dufresne out but that he did need to leave.

The video was viewed more than 3 million times. After a brief suspension from work, the employee in the video was fired; and two other employees were let go as well for their involvement. Dunkin Donuts said, “the treatment of the guest goes against the brand’s core values.”

Cell phones are everywhere, which means a video or photo is just a click away.  Fueled by social media, these videos offer swift justice against any employee who dares to sabotage food or disrespect a customer.