A Dunkin’ Donuts employee has been fired after he was caught on camera pouring water on a resting homeless man.
A video of the incident, which took place in Syracuse, N.Y., was posted on Facebook and went viral over the weekend. In it, Jeremy Dufresne is seen sleeping at a corner table.
As he was waiting for his phone to charge, a worker approached and dumped water on Dufresne’s head. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop sleeping in here?” the employee says in the video. Another employee can be heard laughing.
Visibly shaken, Dufresne jumped to his feet and unplugged his phone before leaving the store.
Many of the nearly 2 million viewers of the video on Facebook were quick to condemn the worker for his “heartless” actions and demanded that his employment be terminated immediately.
“Fire him! I’m done with Dunkin Donuts if they treat people like this. You don’t know that mans hardships,” one woman wrote. “No employee should ever do this, this is beyond sickening and I hope they fired him,” another added.
Dufresne, however, was more reserved in his judgment. “He probably had some personal problems of his own and needed someone to talk to and he took it out on someone else, like me,” he told Syracuse.com in the wake of the incident.
Samuel Breazeale, who shared footage of the incident online, started a GoFundMe page to help pay for some warm clothing for Dufresne and to help him get back on his feet.
The employee can then be seen yelling at Dufresne. (Photos: Samuel Breazeale via Facebook)
More than $6,000 has already been raised, all of which is going to Dufresne and his family.
A Dunkin’ Donuts spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo Lifestyle that the workers responsible had been fired, saying the company was deeply “disturbed” by the footage. “We were extremely disturbed by the behavior of our employees captured in the video. It not only violated our written policies, but goes against our core values as an organization, which include creating a welcoming and hospitable environment and treating everyone with dignity and respect. The employees involved in the incident have been terminated, and we will be contacting the individual in the video to apologize for the negative experience. We also intend to work with local advocates to make sure that our employees are better educated as to how to engage with homeless individuals and where to direct them in the community for appropriate assistance.”
