MEDFORD, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A Dairy Queen owner on Long Island said she was forced to shut down the eatery's dining room this week after several customers became verbally abusive toward workers while refusing to comply with the state's new mask mandate.
Owner Patricia DeMint said everything was going smoothly at the Medford store on Monday morning as the new mandate took effect, requiring mask wearing in all indoor public spaces at businesses that don't require proof of vaccination.
However, DeMint said as nighttime rolled around, some customers became non-compliant with the mask rules and started yelling, screaming and cursing at the Dairy Queen workers.
"There were six people all together within an hour — cursed at my employees, got very upset, and the final straw was a woman was videotaping us saying all kinds of things to us and at that point my crew people were really upset, some of them were in tears, they were like, 'We can't go through this again,'" DeMint said. "And then it also started a lot of emotions in the dining room with other people. There were customers yelling at customers. It was just crazy."
Shortly thereafter, DeMint decided to shut down the dining room area and only keep the drive thru opened while the mandate remains in effect.
"We really tried," Demint's sister, Michelle Robey, co-owner of the restaurant, wrote on Facebook. "We put up signs telling our customers that we are following the new mandate and masks are required to come indoors. We trained our crew on how to ask for customer compliance, offered masks to customers who didn't have them, and tried to be as nice as possible — but none of that mattered."
"Still, people were rude, disrespectful and then downright abusive to our amazing team," Robey added. "We will not tolerate it."
A sign posted on the front door of the Dairy Queen reads, "We tried... but unfortunately, a few bad apples spoil it for everyone."
"Due to repeated non-compliance of the NYS Mask Mandate, the dining room is closed. We will not allow our team to be harassed and abused simply for following the state's mandate," the sign continued.
DeMint said she would rather lose the sales from closing the dining room than have her crew go through that experience again.
Last July, the Dairy Queen location made headlines after a father got into a heated argument with employees and recorded video of a worker cursing and giving him the middle finger when he asked why the servers were not wearing face coverings while working.
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