When a uniformed police officer agreed to meet his family at Olive Garden to celebrate his birthday, he was shoc-ked and dis-mayed when he was for-ced to leave. However, when it was revealed why they kicked him out, the popular restaurant was made to regret the decision.<\/p>\n
Many first responders find themselves working on the weekends, on major holidays, and even on their own birthdays. Their families know it\u2019s all part of the sacrifice. In fact, many law enforcement officers patronize eating establishments while on duty and in uniform. Even though they are taking their assigned break to eat, they are still required to have their flr-earms on them at all times in case of an em-ergency.<\/p>\n
That was the case when Kansas City Police Officer Michael Holsworth agreed to meet his family at a local Olive Garden on his lunch break for his birthday. His family was late to arrive, so he was waiting for them at the front of the restaurant when an employee walked up to him and said, \u201cSir, we don\u2019t allow guns in here,\u201d according to Holsworth.<\/p>\n
The Kansas City motorcycle patrolman described the situation. \u201cNow mind you I am was in full police uniform, and on duty,\u201d he explained. \u201cI actually thought it was a joke at first, so I asked her, \u2018Are you serious?\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cShe replied back with \u2018Yes.\u2019 So I told her, \u2018Well, I can leave I guess.\u2019 She then replied back, \u2018Yes, please leave.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Officer Holsworth took to social media to share his experience. \u201cNow I never in my wil-dest thoughts of thoughts this would happen in the Kansas City area,\u201d Holsworth fumed in a Facebook post that was shared more than 12,000 times, according to Yahoo News. \u201cI see it happening all over the United States to other officers but never thought it would happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
All hell broke loose for Olive Garden as the community backed the police officer and his family. According to Fox 43, \u201cThe news sparked outrage on Olive Garden\u2019s Facebook and Twitter pages and the company quickly responded saying that Olive Garden loves serving law enf-orce-ment and the in-cid-ent was a misunderstanding.\u201d As the ou-trage continued, Olive Garden\u2019s president personally issued an apology to Officer Holsworth.<\/p>\n
\u201cRich Jeffers, Olive Garden Spokesperson, said the president of the company, Dave George, called the officer by phone to apologize for the in-cide-nt. Jeffers said it was not a member of management who told the officer to leave, but a hostess,\u201d Fox 4 News reported. However, one reporter for Police Officer\u2019s Magazine had a different take. \u201cOlive Garden apologized for the in-cid-ent and said it was because the officer was a-rme-d, not because he was a cop,\u201d David Griffith reported. \u201cAnd I\u2019d like to throw the flag for 15 yards for BS on that explanation. I think this was a pol-itical statement by the restaurant\u2019s employee.\u201d
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