Server Fired For Confronting Customers Who Left Their Dog in the Car on a 90 Degree Day

For everyone who’s ever naively asked “why don’t servers just say something when customers are total dicknozzles”—this would be why.

Cristal Perez had been working at a Millvale Millville, New Jersey Longhorn Steakhouse for a year and a half when she was fired last Sunday. Her crime: telling off a couple she was serving who had left their small dog locked in their car on a 90 degree day on Tuesday of that same week. Via Press of Atlantic City, Perez told the couple that what they were doing was “wrong” and that they were “lucky to be leaving before the cops came” (another couple allegedly called city police about the animal). The couple complained to Perez’s manager (because of course they did), upon which she received a four-day suspension. When she came back Sunday, she was terminated for “violating restaurant policy about giving customers a good dining experience.”*

Was the dog in danger? Depends on who you ask. A spokesman for Longhorn, which has apparently taken it upon itself to act as the customers’ PR team, insists that the air conditioning was on the entire hour the couple was in the restaurant and that the dog was never in any danger. Perez, on the other hand, claims the dog was panting heavily and looked to be in distress. Edit: As kinja user Jae (and others) point out, even if Longhorn’s claims are true, the customers in question are guilty of a crime (since every car I’m familiar with needs the engine running for the A/C to work) under New Jersey law by allowing their car to idle for more than 3 minutes. So, best possible interpretation for them, the customers are still extremely shitty people. Thanks, helpful readers!