If you work at a smoothie shop, don’t ever get someone’s order wrong because they might scream racist comments at you and throw their wrong smoothie order back at you. I don’t wish that on any smoothie employee, but that’s what happened in Connecticut.
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According to NBC News, police have said a man threw a drink and made racist insults towards employees at a smoothie shop because he blamed them for the allergic reaction that his son had that sent him to the hospital.
The 48-year-old man, James Iannazzo, went back to Robeks Fresh Juices & Smoothies after his son’s allergic reaction and went off on staff members. He ordered that they tell him who put peanut butter in his son’s drink.
When nobody had an answer for Iannazzo, he became enraged, cursing them out in every which way and throwing a drink at one of the staff members.
From NBC News:
Police also said Iannazzo made comments to an employee “referencing their immigration status.” Authorities said he continued to yell at the employees and tried to open a door to the Robeks “employee only” area after he was asked to leave multiple times.
Iannazzo, who left the store before authorities could arrive, turned himself in to police later. He was charged with intimidation based on bigotry or bias, breach of peace and criminal trespassing.
Charli Hill, 17, said she was called to come in early on Saturday because their store was busy and hadn’t interacted with Iannazzo when he first arrived. From what she knew, he had asked for a “peanut power plus” smoothie without nuts but did not inform anyone of an allergy.
“He just said no peanuts in it, but if you don’t say you have a nut allergy — which is an option on the app and in-person — we use different stuff if there’s a nut allergy … so he didn’t tell us he had an allergy,” Hill said.
When Iannazzo returned to the store, he was aggressive and immediately began yelling at the staff, Hill said. At first the team of teenagers were respectful, but the situation escalated.
“He was like, ‘I’ll be waiting for you guys when you get off of work,’ “ Hill said. “He kept threatening us. He kept trying to get into the door, saying racial slurs.”
Charli Hill, an employee at the shop, recorded the incident and confronted Iannazzo along with her co-worker while another employee called authorities, according to NBC News.
One of the racial slurs included “immigrant loser,” which was aimed at her co-worker.
Hill originally posted the incident on TikTok, knowing the social media platform had the power to spread awareness on the incident, but it was eventually taken down and her account was suspended, according to NBC News.
But screen recordings still made the rounds and social media and a clip was posted on Twitter.
The video has been viewed over 2.6 million times, liked over 40,000 times and retweeted over 16,000 times.
More from NBC News:
Iannazzo’s attorney, Frank Riccio, said in a statement Sunday morning that Iannazzo “wholeheartedly regrets the incident.” Riccio added that Iannazzo stressed to staff members that his drink should not contain peanut butter, because his son had a life-threatening allergy.
“When faced with a dire situation for his son, Mr. Iannazzo’s parental instinct kicked in and he acted out of anger and fear,” Riccio said. “He is not a racist individual and deeply regrets his statements and actions during a moment of extreme emotional stress.”
Employees told police that Iannazzo did ask for his drink to be made without peanut butter but made no mention of an allergy.
Iannazzo worked for Merrill Lynch, an investment management company, but no longer works for them after the incident, according to NBC News.
I understand being mad about a wrong order, but racist? Nah bruh.
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