A customer said an employee at a Party City retail store refused to fill her balloon order after being told that it was for a Pennsylvania police officer’s memorial ceremony.
Karly Lane told WPXI that she went to Party City in Pleasant Hills to buy a dozen black and blue balloons for her friend Robert Gogo Jr., who died in a motorcycle accident in September.
Lane said she told the employee that the balloons were for a memorial ceremony for the fallen officer. That’s when the employee allegedly told Lane that she refused to support a police officer and handed the task off to a coworker instead.
“How can you not support a police officer? It doesn’t matter. They don’t know my brother. They don’t know what kind of man he was. They don’t know what he did in his job. It just hurts,” GoGo’s sister Jennifer Martino told WPXI.
Lane posted an update to her Facebook page Tuesday saying that Party City’s Chief Operating Officer would make two separate donations to the Duquesne Police Department in GoGo’s name and in Party City’s name.
The manager of that Party City location said to WPXI that the store supported “all police officers” and that corporate would release a statement on the matter.
“Party City is committed to our customers and the community. Corporate management is looking into the matter to uncover what transpired and will take action accordingly,” the company said.
This isn’t the first time an employee of a customer service-oriented store has refused to service law enforcement.
In September, three Georgia Walmart employees refused to decorate a cake for a police officer’s retirement party because they said it was “racist.”
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