Food, Fists Fly as Attacks on Restaurant Workers Continue

Westerville, OH (WorkersCompensation.com) - A man attacked a hibachi restaurant worker last week, throwing food and bottles at her was only one of a number of such attacks, as violence against food workers continues. 

Police in Westerville, Ohio said arrested Michael Gary Smith, 30, on Sept. 29 under suspicion that he carried out the attack that was caught on security video. Smith threw bottles, food and a display stand at the employee allegedly causing more than $1,000 in damages, police said. 

According to police reports, Smith had entered Genjigo on Sept. 21 to pick-up food after he reported there was a problem with his order. While two workers at the store fixed his order, Smith was seen in the video using his phone. Police said Smith began yelling obscenities and discussing assaulting his girlfriend. 

When store employees asked him to stop yelling expletives and to lower is voice, Smith turned his attention to the employee and started yelling at her. Video shows Smith growing agitated and leaning around a glass plane at the counter, then pointing at a bowl of food. After other workers tried to intervene, Smith threw the bowl of food at the cashier hitting her in the chest, then grabbing more items, including a wooden display for drinks, as well as bottles, and throw them at the cashier. 

Video shows that a customer walked up to Smith and confronted him, and that the two appear to get into a fight that moved off-screen. 

Officers said Smith faces charges of felony vandalism and misdemeanor assault. 

In Patterson, California, a woman attacked a group of fast food workers at a Kentucky Fried Chicken over a drink order. 

On Sept 25, police reported that a customer went through the drive-thru and placed an order, saying she didn't want a drink with her order. When she got to the window, however, she said she did want a drink order. Witnesses told officials that the misunderstanding infuriated the woman, who then grabbed a "slushee" at the window and threw it at the workers. 

Video of the incident shows the woman reaching into the window and knocking over the cash register and a computer. The woman then walked into the restaurant bare foot, jumped over the customer counter, chased after a minor employee and hit them in the face. 

"Going to a fast food restaurant, if something is wrong with your order, it's not worth jumping over the counter in bare feet like this crazy chick did at KFC," Patterson resident Lindsay Neal told ABC10. 

And in Antioch, Calif., a 16-year-old fast food cashier is recovering after three people attacked her after claiming to find a hair in their food. 

The Jack-in-the-Box worker said she was working as the cashier for the drive thru when two women and one man climbed through the drive thru window around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18. The customers claimed they had found a hair in their food and were irate. 

"They both slammed me to the ground. They would not let me get up," the worker told KTVU. "They just kept stomping me and stomping me." 

The worker was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for a concussion, bruises on her face and body, and a fractured rotator cuff on her left shoulder. 

A study by fightfor15.org has found that between 2017 and 2020 there have been more than 77,000 violent or threatening incidents at California restaurants. The cities with the highest number of incidents include Los Angeles, Stockton and San Francisco. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law Assembly Bill 257, which creates a 10-member council to oversee the fast food industry, as well as set the industry on a path for $22 an hour minimum wage for fast food workers.

Alondra Hernandez, a 28-year-old fast food worker from Oakland, is part of the council. In June, she witnessed a customer attacker her manager at an Oakland Burger King. 

"I would like to see trained security officers in fast food restaurants and also get trainings on proper protocols that workers should take," Hernandez told ABC10, speaking through an interpreter.

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