DETROIT – A Comerica Park food vendor was fired after video appeared to show him spitting into a pizza he was preparing.
The video surfaced over the weekend and instantly racked up thousands of shares. The employee, who has not yet been named, was quickly fired, and now he’s expected to face charges.
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“He was angry because the supervisor kept yelling at him, and he said, 'I’m going to spit in the customer’s pizza,' and I said, 'What?'" Quinell May said.
May said that was just the beginning of a crazy Friday night.
“I’m, like, 'You sure you want to do that?' He said, 'Yeah,' so I pulled out my phone just in case he did it," May said.
His co-worker did what he said he was going to do, officials said. May recorded it on camera.
Minutes later, May said, he went to a manager to report what had happened, but said he was sent home for taking too long to use the bathroom. So he posted the video on social media.
“They contacted me and made me delete it, and then I reposted it," May said. "They said, 'Oh, we have to let you go because we have to investigate,' and I never heard nothing back."
The food company, Detroit Sport Service, sent Local 4 the following statement:
“The employee who filmed and posted the video was sent home from the game Friday evening on an unrelated uniform violation prior to us learning about the food tampering via the video being posted on social media. Our only subsequent communication with that employee was to let him know that he would not be working Saturday or Sunday. No one acting in an official work capacity asked him to remove the video. We referred information regarding the video to the Detroit Police Department and they have told us it is an active investigation.”
Meanwhile, May has some questions of his own.
“Why should I be fired for showing the truth?" May asked. "I feel like they wanted me to sweep it under the rug by not telling anybody, but no. What if it was my mom or somebody you know who ate the pizza? You would want them to know what’s going on."