ST CHARLES, Mo. — A fast-food restaurant employee faces misdemeanor assault charges after attacking a customer who requested a refund for an order Sunday afternoon in St. Charles, police said.
According to the St. Charles Police Department, the customer visited the Popeyes located at 1041 Regency Pkwy. at about 4:30 p.m. to pick up a large order. When she arrived at the drive-thru, she was told that she had to wait for the order to be completed.
The customer parked on the restaurant lot and said she waited for more than 30 minutes for her order. She then decided the wait was too long as she had to attend a surprise party soon.
Police said the customer went inside the restaurant and asked the manager on shift for a refund because of the long wait time. That's when the altercation between the manager and the customer began.
Surveillance video inside the restaurant showed the manager suddenly walking from behind the counter, grabbing the customer's hair and pulling her head down. The manager then began beating the customer in the back of her head, police said.
The customer told police that the manager called her profanity, but the manager accused the customer of calling her the word first, at which point she started fighting the customer.
The manager later admitted to police that she shouldn't have decided to fight the customer, saying she had "a lot of personal things going on and the situation got out of hand," police said.
Another employee who witnessed the altercation told police it was the customer who called the manager the profanity and said that he tried to break up the fight.
Police said the customer didn't complain of any injuries at the scene, but they were later told that she went to a local hospital to be checked for a concussion.
