A UPS driver has been fired after his racist rant while delivering to a Latino household was caught on tape.
On December 17, the home’s security camera recorded the delivery driver standing on the porch of the home saying “now you don’t get [...] nothing,” while writing on what appears to be a notice of failure of delivery.
The man, who was wearing a UPS uniform and holding a package, was also recorded saying “you can’t read and write and speak the [...] English language” in front of the Milwaukee home where a Latino police officer lives.
A company spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that the driver’s employment has been terminated. The UPS driver’s name has not been released due to privacy concerns.
Shirley Aviles, the mother of the police officer who resides in the home, said “UPS is huge, they’re global and this serves for any other businesses that are delivering packages, you can’t do that. You can’t just look at a package and make these crazy assumptions.”
Aviles attempted to contact UPS about the incident for nearly two weeks before Forward Latino, an advocacy group, organized a press conference on behalf of the family.
Darryl Morin, president of Forward Latino, said that “the only information this driver had that could serve as a trigger for this deep-seated hate was the name on the package.”
The Aviles family provided digital logs from their video doorbell camera service to reporters, which do not show the delivery driver ringing the doorbell on the 17th. There is also no evidence that he knocked on the door, said Morin.
“The package was a Christmas gift that we eventually received after Christmas Day, but what if it happened to have time sensitive content like an EpiPen or a book I needed to take a final,” said Aviles.
Senior manager of media relations at UPS Matthew O’Connor said that the company has apologized to the family for the incident. “There is no place in any community for racism, bigotry or hate. This is very serious and we promptly took action, terminating the driver’s employment,” he said.
Aviles said that the incident “is bigger than just ‘hey, I’m sorry, he’s been fired and we apologize.' This is about the things people do when they think no one is watching them… that’s when you see people’s true colors and that’s what’s scary.”
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