Let me start this post by saying I have not been able to confirm this information fully; however, I’m reading enough things on the Internet today to lead me to believe there is some truth here. I haven’t seen anything on snopes.com yet disproving it either.
Here is what has been posted so far. This appears to be one of the earliest postings on the matter from Craigslist:
****This really did happens guys..my friend’s dad owns a business in CP and the cops came by and gave him a flyer urging him to boycott DD!! It’s NUTS!****
THIS HAPPENED IN CROWN POINT INDIANA.
This has made me so mad that I’m writing to all of you.
One of the building secretaries has a nephew in the Armed Forces. He and a buddy were in town, in uniform, and went into the Crown Point,IN Dunkin Donuts for coffee. The owner waited on them and REFUSED to serve them. His exact words (according to her) were “you are killing my countrymen and I will not serve you”. They asked him to repeat what he said because they couldn’t believe what they’d heard and he repeated it exactly.
The boy’s dad was so enraged that he went in and confronted the owner who admitted that was exactly what he said and he meant it. Dad turned to the people in the restaurant and told them what was going on and NO ONE left.
They contacted the corporate office and were told that a letter reprimanding the owner was sent. BIG DEAL.
Just so you know, this man also owns the Dunkin Donut in Merrillville,IN by K-Mart. I, for one, will never stop at either store again - that includes the Crown Point Baskin-Robbins that is also owned by him!
SPREAD THE WORD IF YOU FEEL THAT THIS IS HORRIBLE!
This could be a bunch of bunk; however, as one who loves Dunkin Donuts, if there is any shred of truth to it, we as the Dunkin Donuts community need to jump all over it and express our disgust to the store owner and to Dunkin Donuts corporate.
Please leave a comment in protest both on this post (for Dunkin Donuts corporate) and for the store owners themselves (on the stores page).
Reminder, I’m not affiliated with Dunkin Donuts, just a lover of the brand and product like all of you.
This is a false story spread by dimwits. A local reporter found them out, and it appears that dimwit #1, and hopefully more of the inbred dimwit relatives, will pay.
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The power of nine
E-mail: Red, white and untrue
September 5, 2007
JERRY DAVICH
The e-mail blasted into cyberspace under the patriotic heading, “Americanism,” followed by red, white and untrue allegations against a foreign-born business owner who refused to serve a local soldier for “killing my countrymen.”
The e-mail’s ground-zero origin came from a local high school after “lunchroom chatter” mushroomed into a cloud of controversy, threats, outrage and police reports.
Region residents stoked the flames with an e-mail pay-it-forward mentality, taking us backward with local race relations.
Organization. Indignation. Confrontation. Intimidation.
“You’re lucky we don’t come over there and blow the place up!” one patriot allegedly said.
“Let’s organize a boycott,” others said. “You can’t get away with this in the USA!”
But wait, who is this local soldier? Does he even exist? Did this incident actually happen? Is the business owner even from Iraq?
Or is this an urban myth, an outright lie, blaming an innocent immigrant and shaming us all under the guise of so-called Americanism?
Shameful doughnut hole in ‘Americanism’
The highly inflammable e-mail made its first cyberspace spark early last week before catching fire over the holiday weekend. By Tuesday, it raged out of control across the region, exploding into physical threats, rampant rumors, and police reports of intimidation and possible violence.
Under the white-hot subject line of “Americanism,” its fiery first sentence hissed: “This has made me so mad that I’m writing to all of you.”
The e-mail stated that a nephew of a Crown Point High School secretary is in the U.S. Armed Forces and, along with a friend, the two men recently visited the Dunkin’ Donuts in Crown Point for coffee.
“The owner waited on them and REFUSED to serve them,” the e-mail stated. “His exact words were ‘you are killing my countrymen and I will not serve you.’ They asked him to repeat what he said because they couldn’t believe what they’d heard and he repeated it exactly.”
The e-mail continued: “The boy’s dad was so enraged that he went in and confronted the owner who admitted that was exactly what he said and he meant it. Dad turned to the people in the restaurant and told them what was going on and NO ONE left.”
“They contacted the corporate office and were told that a letter reprimanding the owner was sent. BIG DEAL. Just so you know, this man also owns the Dunkin Donuts in Merrill-ville by K-Mart. I, for one, will never stop at either store again — that includes the Crown Point Baskin-Robbins that is also owned by him!”
The author of the Aug. 28
e-mail appeared to be Mary Roth, the school’s athletic secretary, whose name and title was clearly noted underneath.
Several readers forwarded this e-mail to me since then, most of them completely buying into its “Anti-American” allegations, others simply asking me to investigate it.
On Sunday morning I contacted several people who originally received the e-mail, for verification of what happened, more details, or contact information for the two servicemen.
Within an hour, I received an e-mail from Roth, replying: “I did not originate this e-mail. It originated with Kim Templin, our principal’s secretary. I just cut, pasted and forwarded.”
This mindless “cut, pasted and forwarded” process is how the e-mail transmogrified into a firestorm of controversy.
Region residents began calling the Dunkin’ Donuts in Crown Point with harassing complaints and threats. Others allegedly walked into the store telling customers not to do business there, with plans of organizing a full-fledged boycott.
By this time, the simmering issue reached a boiling point as the e-mail spread to dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of people, many who didn’t even attempt to douse it with critical thought or skepticism.
On Saturday morning, a manager at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Crown Point called police after being threatened for “allegedly refusing to serve military personnel,” according to police.
On Monday night, a manager there again called police after receiving a phone call from an unknown man saying, “You’re lucky we don’t come over there and blow the place up!” according to police reports.
Shortly afterward, a white male entered the store telling patrons to leave, police said, and when the manager asked the man to leave, he replied, “Shut your mouth (expletive), you are lucky I don’t kill you.”
On Tuesday, employees there told me that other threats were made. Two customers told me they’ve never seen anyone — military uniform or not — refused service by the owner.
Also, at least one group of local servicemen — in uniform — attempted to dine at the store and, of course, had no problems getting served.
Dunkin’ Brands corporate spokesman Andrew Mastrangelo said his company is investigating the e-mail’s claim, and is taking the allegations seriously.
Later that afternoon, another call was made to police of harassment at that store. And on it went, thousands of region residents believing, and some acting on, an e-mail sent from a Crown Point High School e-mail account.
I called Mary Roth and Kim Templin, secretary to principal Ryan Pitcock. Neither replied.
So I called Pitcock. He replied.
Pitcock said “lunchroom chatter” led to the initial e-mail, and its content cannot be substantiated by school officials or anyone else.
In other words, it’s bogus, an urban myth, an outright lie.
“To say the least, it is regrettable,” Pitcock told me. “And it is an inappropriate use of school computers.”
Pitcock added that he hopes no negative comments, threats or actions are aimed against Dunkin’ Donuts and its owner, Taru Patel, who is female by the way, contrary to the
e-mail’s male reference.
I asked Pitcock if any disciplinary action would be taken against Roth and Templin, or anyone else involved in the
e-mail. He wouldn’t answer, saying it’s a school personnel matter.
What Pitcock didn’t know, and obviously many other people also, was that similar versions of this urban myth have been percolating in cyberspace for years, even locally.
In December, 2001, the Post-Tribune reported similar claims and even picketing against the owner of a Dunkin’ Donuts in Portage.
An Indian-born man named Kam Patel was accused of refusing service to a U.S. military serviceman for “killing our people.”
Sound familiar?
Of course it never happened.
Of course it didn’t happen this time either.
And of course Taru Patel, owner of the Dunkin’ Donuts in Crown Point and other local Dunkin’ Donuts, didn’t return phone calls Tuesday for comment. And why should she?
I’ve yet to hear from one person who knows our phantom U.S. serviceman, who apparently wears his military uniform for coffee and doughnuts.
Instead, I hear about a “friend of a friend,” or a “neighbor who knows a woman who knows him,” or whatever.
So, do you know him? Is he your son, brother, or father? If so, I’m here to meet him.
In the meantime, the Dunkin’ Donuts corporate spokesman quietly admitted that versions of this e-mail show up every year as Sept. 11 approaches, reigniting the same old fears, bigotry and prejudices.
Sure it’s easy to blame Templin, Roth and anyone else who allowed “lunchroom chatter” to inflame our racism, and also to singe a local business owner.
But blame isn’t enough here.
Shame on those of us who blindly believed the e-mail’s content. And shame on those of us who stupidly forwarded it. But more importantly, shame on those of us who wanted so badly to believe it to be true.
This shouldn’t be what “Americanism” is all about.
Contact Jerry Davich at 648-3107 or jdavich@post-trib.com
Thanks for putting the facts out here for everyone Robert.
Actually Robert, what happened at Dunkin Donuts was true. My brother Kyle and his two friends were sitting in the store having coffee when this incident happened. What was written about the owner saying “you are killing my countrymen and I will not serve you” was the exact thing my brother came home talking about that evening; before all of this got out onto the web. So, these kind of rumors do not just come out because of sept 11th is approaching. I think that the store should be boycotted, if people here in America have any pride in their country or service men. I personally have a husband in the Marine Corps who is currently over-seas and this act of rudeness to anybody is unacceptable. The point though is that the story is true and what was said by that store owner should never have happened. I think the part about him receiving death threats is wrong also and is taking this too far. But for the rest of us, we should spread the news and tell our family and friends to boycott the two locations and hope for the best.
Carey–Your “brother and his friends” refused to come forward on the record, so I do not believe it. If it is true and serious enough for you to want to adversely affect a local small businessman’s livlihood, you ought to have the integrity to own up to the report publicly. If not, it is false.
All, I have contacted Carey to see if her brother would be willing to do an interview with us for the website on what he experienced at the Crown Point IN store.
Folks, I hate to be the one to point this out, but even if this story is true, a business owner has the right to refuse service to any customer, at any time, for any reason. That’s part of the freedom business owners have in this country. You may not agree with the reasons, but they are not required to serve you just because you have money.
And to Carey; if your relative was insulted/refused service by a business owner, then you should boycott the business. Urging others to do so isn’t “hoping for the best”, it’s seeking revenge. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is un-American.
It didn’t happen, end of story. The owner of this franchise is a female, and not of Arab descent. No one can point out the day it happened, and no one has come forward to the corporate offices.
In the wake of 9/11, various Dunkin Donuts locations have been targeted with many accusations, none of which have ever been proven true, many of which have been proven false.
As the article above mentions, shame on everyone for jumping on this without stopping and questioning the validity of the email. Every person who forwarded this email owes both the franchisee and the corporate office a huge apology - the franchisee for the loss of business, and the corporate office for the time wasted in dealing with responding to the countless emails and phone calls of this foolish rumor.
I go to the DD in Wollaston, a part of Quincy, MA. Since they fired the manager there back in the spring, the place is never cleaned, they run of tea bags at 7am in the morning during the week. People yelling over each other, your don’t know who is waiting on you. they only open two cash register when before there would be 4 but if only two are open then it is one from each section, not both in the same section. I have just started to go to the Coffee Break shop instead of DD It is really bad.
i was going to a dd on us 19 in palm harbor fl but as maureen stated in her comment they no longer have a manager and the place is the pits the place is dirty the kids who work there run the place like it is a play ground so i have decided to go to the local hess up the street they have a dd inside that is clean and two lovley middle aged women work there ,they are pleasant ,remember your name ,your order and no matter how busy they are they always have a smile and the place is spotless,i love dd but to be honest if i had not found one do close to this one i may have changed to another coffee shop , maybe someone should look into this store and its going ons