Page 10 - Florida Sentinel 3-13-20

Tampa Bay Area
St. Pete Resident Seeks Justice Against Fast Food Restaurant
Man claims he was locked inside the eatery for 12 minutes.
St. Petersburg resident, Quentin Burney, has been dealing with the effects of what happened to him when he says he was “unlawfully locked” inside a fast food es- tablishment. He says it’s all on video.
Burney, a former Tampa resident, says it was in No- vember 2018, when he went to the Caspers MacDonald’s restaurant at 6 a. m. to get a
cup of coffee. The restaurant is on 4th St. So., St. Petersburg. He says he was harassed at that store from November to December 28, 2018. He has not been back there since.
Burney tells the Sentinel that he walked up to the regis- ter to order coffee, however, no one waited on him. He says the doors were intentionally locked and he was unable to leave the establishment. He says it was 6:12 before his order was filled, all the while the doors were locked. “None of the crew was at their work
station,” he says, “but they’re in the back looking at me wait- ing for a reaction so they could call the police, but I just waited,” he said.
Eventually, a manager un- locked the door after entering the establishment through a side door. “Nothing was said on the PA system, no sign on the doors or nothing said ver- bally about the place being locked,” he explained.
Burney, who formerly worked at this location, says this was not the first time this has happened to him.
As a paying customer, Burney says his rights were violated – citizen rights, civil rights, constitutional rights, ADA rights. Since this was not the first time he had been ig- nored in the establishment, Burney requested to talk with the manager. He says two of the managers were at the store, but neither came to hear what he had to say.
A spokesperson in the Human Resources office of Caspers told the Sentinel that they had not received a com- plaint from Burney, al-
though he says he filed a com- plaint. He also filed a com- plaint with the St. Petersburg Police Dept.
In the meantime he has filed complaints against the establishment with several agencies and had visits with a therapist and psychiatrist about his disability.
He has been correspon- ding with: the Office of Human Relations Commis- sion, Better Business Bureau, Human Protection Agency, ACLU-Miami, and the Florida Commission Office.
PAGE 10-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020