Service Workers Continue to Bear Brunt of Customer Attacks

Casa Grande, AZ (WorkersCompensation.com) – Police are looking for and community members react to attacks on service workers in separate incidents across the country.  

In Casa Grande, Ariz., police announced Monday they were looking for a suspect in an attack on a Wendy’s worker.  

 Casa Grande Police posted an image to their Facebook page of a woman they said came into the fast food restaurant and allegedly assaulted a worker. Police said the woman threw her drink and food at the employee.  

"Upon identifying her fries were cold and her nuggets were NOT spicy, she threw her drink and food bag at the employee," the department said in their post. Police didn’t say when the assault happened, but said they have opened investigation into the assault.  

The incident is one of a string of assaults on workers in fast food, retail and other service establishments this past week, a continuation of a trend started since the beginning of the pandemic. 

In Suffolk County, N.Y., police said they have arrested a man who allegedly assaulted two movie theater employees. Since the assault, residents have asked the police department to step up patrols.  

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, the man became enraged and started a physical confrontation with the one of the employees of the Sayville Cinema on June 18. The man, Don Ahlers, Jr., 55, of East Islip, grabbed the female employee by the neck and choked her. When a 16-year-old employee tried to intervene, Ahlers allegedly punched him in the head and gouged his eye.  

Ahlers was arrested Tuesday and charged with third-degree assault, criminal obstruction of breathing and endangering the welfare of a child.  

Since then, community leaders have signed a petition calling for a designated foot patrol officer for the town.  

"Suffolk County police have been coming down at the time when some robberies have been taking place and shining the lights," says Tricia Tom, owner of Kay Cameron Jewelers. "But we really need the beat cop back." 

In 2020, the officer who covered the Sayville beat retired and the person who took on his beat did not return to a street patrol.  

Suffolk County Police told community members, according to News 12, that funding for a beat patrol officer was not available.  

In South Burlington, Vt., police said a man attacked a Cricket phone store employee with a stun gun.  

According to South Burlington Police, a man walked into the Cricket Wireless on Williston Road. Police were called to the store for a report of a disturbance and asked 21-year-old Rana Osman to leave the store and not come back.  

Less than an hour later, however, Osman returned with a stun gun and attacked an employee. The employee was able to call police. When they arrived, Osman complied with police orders to drop the stun gun, but then ran into traffic before police could arrest him.  

Police said they were looking for Osman.  

And in Prince William County, Va., police are searching for a man who allegedly exposed himself to a Food Lion employee before sexually assaulting her.  

Police said they were called to the Hoadly Road store in Manassas, after a 58-year-old employee reported a customer following her around the store that morning.  

The employee told police that the man was known to visit the location and had had brief encounters with the employee in the past. This time, however, the employee said the man approached her and had a brief conversation with her before walking away. When the employee went back to stocking aisles, she said, the man approached her from behind. The employee reported that she then felt “an unknown fluid on her pants,” the police said in a press release.  

In reviewing the store’s video surveillance, the police said the man entered the store around 9 a.m. and was seen watching the employee on multiple occasions.  

“At one point, the man approached the employee from behind while exposing himself and making obscene motions unbeknownst to the employee who was facing away from the man,” the release said. 

The fluid is suspected to be bodily fluids.  

Before the police got to the store, the man left the store and got into a car and drove away. Police are continuing to look for the suspect.