Outback Steakhouse Manager Kicks Out Uniformed Officer And His Wife. Cop’s Reaction Is Shocking

The manager of an Outback Steakhouse restaurant kicked out a uniformed officer and his wife when they arrived for dinner. Following this incident, the cop’s reaction shocked the restaurant staff and everyone in the city.

Andrew Ward stared blankly at the woman who stood before him. “I’m Lisa, the restaurant’s manager. I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Puzzled by the sudden introduction, Ward replied with a slight chuckle, “No, don’t tell me you’re out of steak. We just got here, and we’re very hungry.”

His wife laughed as her husband made the silly joke. It had been months since they went out on a date. Ward had just had a long week and wanted a clean break, and the Outback Steakhouse by the corner of the street in Cleveland, Tennessee, seemed like the perfect place for his escape. It was also the best time to reconnect with his wife, so without much thought, they gave it a shot.

The young couple had just found a cozy seat by the window and signaled for their orders to be taken. But barely five minutes into their dining experience, the restaurant’s manager, dressed in elegant apparel, approached their table with a serious look on her face. Despite his little joke earlier, she did not seem to share in his and his wife’s amusement. She instead gave a brief and stern reply.

“Oh no, sir, we have enough steak, but at this moment, just not for you. We can’t serve you.”

Taken aback, Ward stared at Lisa, registering the bluntness of her statement in his mind. What did she mean by that? Before he could say a word, the manager surprised him with an even more shocking request.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I have to ask you to step outside for a bit.”

At this point, Ward was hit by a ball of confusion. What could the problem be? Seeing that he was dressed in his uniform, he wondered if there was an issue at the restaurant that they needed to fix. If that were the case, Ward knew he would help to the best of his abilities. But from the note of urgency and underlying unease he heard in the manager’s voice, he feared it could be something entirely different, something he might not like. So, while remaining in his seat, he asked, “Is there a problem, ma’am?”

In response, the young manager surprised him yet again by asking him to take his gun out of the restaurant. Puzzled, Officer Ward asked the one question that popped into his head at that moment.

“What does my gun have to do with the situation?”

He just wanted to enjoy a peaceful dinner, but hearing such a request was about to sour his mood. Yet, he maintained perfect composure, careful not to draw unwanted attention to their table, all the while waiting for the manager to elaborate on what she meant. Finally, she said something that caught him completely off guard.

“You have to leave your gun in your vehicle outside, sir. It’s prohibited in the restaurant.”

Ward, startled by this unreasonable request, told the young woman that he could not do that because he was in uniform and therefore was still mandated to hold on to his service weapon. Briefly and wordlessly, the manager walked away from the table, leaving a dumbfounded Ward behind. He was still in the process of digesting all that had happened when he saw the manager making a call at her station.

This was his first time dining at the steakhouse. He was drawn in by the good reviews he had read online and was eager to give it a try for some time. But mere minutes into his dining experience, Ward began to suspect that he might have just made a big mistake that evening. Quickly, he scanned the room to see if other customers at the restaurant had witnessed what had just happened, but to his surprise, everyone was minding their business.

Some were sitting alone, indulging in their private activities on their phones, while many others sat in pairs, enjoying the company of their partners while they waited for their dinner to be served. It seemed like the majority of the people were completely oblivious to the situation that had transpired a few minutes ago. In a way, he was thankful for that because he didn’t feel mortified by the incident, but at the same time, he was sad knowing that he didn’t have backup.

His wife, having witnessed the unusual exchange before her, asked her husband what the manager might be up to, but before Ward could respond to her question, the young manager walked back to their table, bearing more bizarre follow-up news. Instead of suggesting that the officer had to step out with his gun like she had stated initially, she straight up asked him to leave because the restaurant was a gun-free zone, and his gun on the premises ran contrary to it. To make matters worse, she added that it was restaurant policy to create a safe space for their customers, and his being fully clad in his uniform would make a lot of its customers uncomfortable.

To say that the young officer was baffled would be an understatement. Ward was utterly shellshocked. Never in his life had he been subjected to such unreasonable and underhanded treatment. And not only was he on the receiving end of the humiliating experience, but his wife was also dragged into it. Who would have thought that his job in the service would keep him from spending some quality time with his wife at a diner in the same city he served?

Ward felt completely embarrassed by the degrading treatment, yet he didn’t want to drag it on longer than necessary or become the center of attention. So, he urged his wife to leave the restaurant to go someplace else, somewhere that would not be bothered by their presence in the least bit. Ward stormed out of the Outback Steakhouse, embarrassed and confused by the incident that had transpired a few minutes ago.

Although he had not reacted rashly when he was in there, his body buzzed with multiple emotions that he needed to address. To deal with the burst of emotions, Ward did something completely unexpected. Immediately he got home that night, the young officer went on Facebook and shared his unappealing experience with everyone he knew there. The idea was to do something about the surge of emotions he felt and also call out the restaurant for its discriminatory behavior.

In this post, he made a lot of statements reflecting his puzzled and agitated state of mind. He stated, “I don’t blame the manager, but this is ridiculous, and we will never go back there again.” Then along the line, he also added, “A uniformed law enforcement officer who is sworn to protect and serve the public is refused service because they have a firearm. I am disgusted and have no other words.” His tone was laced with unbridled fury.

For a while now, news of this sort of behavior had circulated amongst stations, with the most recent case being the one in San Francisco. In this particular case, a group of officers were kicked out of a local diner for carrying firearms. He struggled to understand why wearing a full uniform constituted a danger to others. It seemed illogical to Ward, as the same armed officers would still be moving outside the diner, interacting with the same members of the public who were presently in the building. So, of what use was segregating them within the restaurant’s walls? What purpose did it serve?

One night, he had planned on dining in peace with his wife, yet his choice of career led them out the front door before they could even enjoy the courtesy of placing their orders. Like Ward, many people online sympathized with him and made threats of boycotting the Outback Steakhouse he had mentioned in his post. In the comments, some people explained that they never imagined that discrimination of this degree still existed, especially in the state of Tennessee.

They believed this spoke volumes about the rate at which the locals did not appreciate the good work of their law enforcement officers. Some even commented that had they been in his situation, they would have caused a scene before leaving. According to this commenter, it was befitting to do so, especially since it was highly likely that Ward had experienced an eventful and stressful week before he visited the steakhouse.

In more ways than one, the comments helped ease Ward’s agitation. The young Tennessee officer found comfort in the fact that there were still many people out there who could sympathize with and recognize the insanity of the situation. With that, Officer Ward decided to move on from the whole situation. However, the young man was entirely unaware of the wave he had inevitably sparked with just that one Facebook post.

Even though he had made peace with the incident, many people online were not ready to bury it yet, so they shared the post around until it became a popular topic of discussion in town. News outlets picked up interest in it and sought to dig deeper to get more scoops to build their story. Similarly, many people poked at Officer Ward’s post, demanding that other people who saw and resonated with its contents should boycott the Outback Steakhouse for the time being. And just like that, Andrew Ward had unwittingly sparked a movement through his post. Never could he have expected his momentary outburst to get to this point, nor could he have seen what happened next.

Following the public backlash, both online and offline, Outback Steakhouse experienced a considerable drop in its reputation and workflow. The usual rush they had each day was gradually reducing by the day. Then, when the weekend passed, the restaurant noticed that they were experiencing low sales due to Andrew Ward’s post that was circulating on social media.

To nip this problem in the bud before it escalated any further, the restaurant reached out to Officer Ward and apologized for the incident. But something about the apology struck a nerve in the young officer’s body. In the apology issued to Ward, the representative of the Outback told him that they had acted in that manner because they had received a complaint from another customer who was seated across the table Ward and his wife occupied.

According to this customer, she felt threatened by Ward’s presence and was scared for her life. The report went on to reveal that the customer had stated that she was afraid because “police are shooting people,” and after the situation had been controlled, the customer also demanded to be escorted to her vehicle out of fear of being shot.

What Ward had heard confused him. To think a fellow citizen felt threatened by his presence simply because he wore a uniform! This issue made him wonder what kind of name and reputation the law enforcement services had created for themselves. Did the customer complain due to a previous encounter with an officer of the law? Or did the customer have a hidden agenda or personal vendetta against him and his wife? Ward found it hard to believe that some stranger could feel so triggered by an officer dressed in his uniform at a diner, no less.

Outback Steakhouse stressed that it was for these reasons that they hoped Ward and his wife could forgive them and understand where they were coming from that night. The restaurant staff explained that they never meant to be rude or disrespectful, and they also stated that they never meant to appear discriminatory. In fact, in a statement they released to Officer Ward, they expanded on this fact by saying, “We’ve always allowed uniform law enforcement officers to carry their sidearms inside our restaurants. A manager made a mistake, and we have discussed this with her. We have contacted the guest personally and apologized.”

In one last show of remorse, the restaurant gave Officer Ward a $100 gift card. They expressed that the management simply wanted to meet the demands of their customers and create the safe environment they wanted. But little had they realized that by doing so, they had also disappointed a few customers in real time, online and otherwise.

As expected, Officer Ward understood where they were coming from. Seeing how much the restaurant was affected by the whole issue, he decided to make the apology public in hopes that the agitated netizens would forgive the restaurant and cancel their boycott threats. Some of them accepted the apology, advising that the restaurant had learned a valuable lesson from the experience. Most of these people hoped the restaurant would cancel its gun-free policy or at least reconsider the type of people it applied to.

Law enforcement officers, for instance, should be the least of their worries, as the city was probably crawling with unlicensed gun holders. People called out to the restaurant that if they truly wanted to enforce a gun-free zone in the Outback, then they would have to enable a stop and frisk policy. Although it might seem inconvenient, it would go a long way in keeping with the restaurant’s policy of ensuring a safe space.

But as online and offline platforms for discussion buzzed with debates on the topic, some people found it difficult to accept Outback Steakhouse’s apology. This set of people felt triggered by the restaurant’s inability to arrive at a compromise that was not discriminatory. Recalling how the manager had blatantly asked for an officer and his wife to leave the premises all because someone felt scared for no just reason, they believed the manager could have handled the situation a lot better. If the manager could react in such a way, then there was no way of telling how the staff would treat their customers if they were in a position to take matters such as this into their own hands.

The incident sparked a lot of discussions in the city, with many of them bordering on the morality and rationality behind the gun-free policy. Of all people, why did it only apply to a uniformed armed officer who had innocently stopped by a restaurant to have dinner with his wife? A lot of people hoped that this particular incident would be the last of its kind and that Outback Steakhouse would be more considerate of its customers when handling their daily affairs. Soon after the apology was made public, the Outback restaurant recorded a gradual increase in their sales margin, as their customers were coming back steadily. Thanks to this situation, they were able to spot a major flaw in their long-standing rule.

As they had explained, the owners of the restaurant initially implemented the policy to create a comfortable environment for their customers. At the time of its creation, heated confrontations were somewhat of a common practice in the area. In fact, in a restaurant just downtown, there was an altercation between a drunken service worker and a customer. Things ended badly, and as a result, the restaurant went under. To avoid a repetition of such an occurrence in the same area, Outback Steakhouse had come up with the gun-free policy to ensure they avoided such a disastrous situation.

However, this new incident with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer highlighted the problems associated with their policy. In addition to its discriminatory nature, they realized it didn’t fit into the changing nature of the liberal era in which they lived. Taking these facts into account, the restaurant drew a lifelong lesson on customer service, inclusivity, and non-discrimination.

With the situation under control now, Ward took to Facebook to express how he was thankful and humbled by the support he and his wife had received throughout the ordeal. He believed that the unprecedented support he received from the community played a part in solving the situation and he believed it had led to serious reformations within the system.

Now that things had been solved, he disclosed that he wanted to move on from the whole incident. To draw the entire situation to a final close, the town sheriff, Eric Watson, made a short remark. He applauded the restaurant for reaching out to the officer and also urged the members of the community to always show support to the men and women who wore a badge on their chests every single day.

After the whole event had been completely resolved, Andrew Ward and his wife finally enjoyed their long-awaited meal at the Outback Steakhouse. To prove to the remaining members of the public that all parties had settled their differences, the young Tennessee officer went to the restaurant dressed in his usual uniform, and nothing was done or said on the matter. It appeared that Outback Steakhouse finally understood the gravity of its previous mistake and was going to work on delivering quality services to its customers.