When a cop approached his register, a teen cashier chose to do something kind. He paid for the officer’s dessert, without using his employee discount either.
Unfortunately, a man who witnessed this moment, had a terrifying reaction to this awesome act of kindness — suddenly, the boy’s employer made everything even worse.
Great American Cookies stock photo (Photo Credit: YouTube)Zack Randolph was a 18-Year-Old young man working at Great American Cookies at Katy Mills Mall in Texas when a uniformed cop walked into his store on a Sunday evening to purchase a $2.75 dessert, according to Daily Mail. At that moment, Zack decided to try to brighten the officer’s day.
Little did Zack know, however, his random act of kindness would go horribly wrong when another patron noticed the teen had paid for the cop’s dessert with his own money as a way of saying thank you. The experience was so frightening and disturbing, Zack’s mother quickly took to social media to share the troubling experience.
Zack Randolph with his mom Tami Kurtz Randolph (Photo Credit: Facebook)Explaining that an on-duty officer had walked up to the counter and placed his order, Tami Kurtz Randolph said, “My son offered to pay for his cookie with his own money,” not taking advantage of the employee discount, but rather paying for the item in full.
“The officer was grateful said thank you and walked away,” Tami recalled. Unfortunately, things were far from over. In fact, according to Tami, the next customer in line walked up to the counter and asked Zack whether he was going to buy his family’s cookies too.
Apologetically, Zack Randolph explained that he was sorry, but he had bought the cop’s cookie because he was wearing a badge. Shockingly, this caused the customer to start verbally attacking Tami’s son, calling him a racist, and threatening to beat him up, according to the upset mom.
“His wife threatened to go back there and slap him. The middle-aged man sat down his little daughter and tried to come behind the counter to attack him. Thankfully his coworker defused the situation,” Tami wrote, adding, “The man then said, ‘I will get you fired.’”
Zack, who stepped back, walked away, and said very little to this man, thought it was over. It wasn’t. The next day, he received a text from his employer, telling him to bring all of his “stuff” in for “a meeting with his manager and upper manager” on Tuesday, Tami recalled. When Zack walked into the meeting, he was told “the upper managers want him fired,” according to Tami’s post.
“Thankfully his manager refused and said you are an excellent worker and everyone agreed that you did nothing wrong,” Tami furthered, adding, “The day before this situation he was offered a $2 an hour raise and management.” So, Zack started his normal shift, but once again, he’d soon learn that this was all far from over.
“He worked 2-3 hours when he was called into the back room where [the manager] had written him up. It says ‘he bought a cookie for a police officer and a customer wanted to physically fight him,’” Tami wrote. “It does state ‘if this happens again he will be terminated.’ Then, she stated after today’s shift you will be on a 1-week suspension.”
Tami was rightfully troubled by the chain of events. “Since when does buying a police officer a cookie give anyone else a reason to attack someone?” she asked. “And when did a Corporation want to FIRE someone for being KIND, taking what a customer said or did, regardless of how hateful they are?”
As her post gained national attention, creating backlash for Great American Cookie Company, the company eventually reached out to Zack Randolph a week later, Tami says, to offer a verbal apology and also pay Zack for the hours he was scheduled during the suspension, saying that they hoped he would return to work.
However, Zack asked if he could receive a written apology for reference if needed for future employment. Sadly, in an update on her original post, Tami says, “He has not heard back from them or received a written statement.”
Luckily, even after this company’s tremendous fail, the mom says the teen’s kind heart hasn’t been changed. “Thankfully, my son said he would do it again in a heartbeat,” Tami said. Although the company has since publicly apologized, according to Fox 26 Houston, it’s sad that it ever came to this.
The saying “No good deed goes unpunished” definitely comes to mind. So, does the saying “The customer is always right.” The latter, obviously, isn’t always true, and the former doesn’t have to be either. Let this be a lesson for the rest of us. Stand up for what’s right. If the customer is wrong, they’re wrong. A kind employee shouldn’t be punished to make an ignorant customer happy.
