A now-former employee at Comerica Park, the home of the Detroit Tigers, has been charged after a video appeared to show a food service worker spitting on pizza intended for customers.
A video posted to social media on Saturday shows the 20-year-old employee, identified as Jaylon Kerley, spitting on pizza dough before smearing some sauce on top of the uncooked pie.
Speaking with Detroit news station WXYZ, coworker Quinelle May, who recorded Friday’s incident, said Kerley was angry during the shift and claimed that it wasn’t an isolated incident.
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May tried to tell management, but says his supervisors told him to keep his mouth shut.
“Every time I tried to talk, they told me to shut up,” May told the news station.
May claimed that after he posted the video on social media, managers threatened to fire him.
Stadium’s food service operations Detroit Sportservice issued multiple statements about Friday’s incident, saying once it learned of the employee’s behaviour, the food stand was immediately closed.
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“As soon as we became aware through social media of potential food tampering Friday night, we immediately closed that food stand and disposed of all the product,” the company said. “Food safety is our top priority and we will take any appropriate action necessary to protect our guests.”
Detroit Sportservice noted that the employee who recorded the video was sent home for an “unrelated uniform violation” before they learned of the spitting incident, adding “no one acting in an official work capacity asked him to remove the video.”
The Associated Press reported Tuesday Kerley was arraigned on felony and misdemeanour food law violations. The felony charge is punishable by up to four years behind bars.
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