Saturday, the Central Florida LEO Wives Facebook page complained that a Davenport restaurant turned away two uniformed Polk County Sheriffs deputies.
In the statement on Facebook, it says that a group of Law Enforcement Officers and their wives had saved a table at Davenport’s Ale House for the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. The Law Enforcement Officers who were off duty, not in uniform were seated and served with their wives. But when two on-duty deputies showed up to eat dinner and enjoy the fight on their break with the same group, the Central Florida LEO Wives accuse the restaurant security of refusing the two men in, saying that the uniformed deputies made their customers nervous.
"I was stunned and mad and I was hurt for my guys to have to hear that," Crystal Nobre, a law-enforcement wife and the publisher of the viral post said.
Nobre said she had invited the two deputy friends, but received a text shortly after stating the two were turned away. Nobre said she went to the door to find out why and that's when security told her they were indeed asked to leave.
"They said that the deputies would make their people in there nervous," Nobre was furious and wasn't willing to give up. She asked for a manager during the busy fight night. That's when Danny Chopra, the owner stepped in.
Chopra told ABC Action News the altercation was a miscommunication between his staff and himself.
"We are extremely sorry it was a misunderstanding, any law-enforcement are always welcome at our restaurant," Chopra said.
At the time, Chopra says his assistant manager had told him the deputies were there to serve a warrant.
Chopra says, in that case it wasn't the appropriate time to do that.
If given the chance, Chopra said he would have let the deputies in without incident, if he would have known they were just there to eat.
"Oh absolutely, they could hae come in, absolutely, 100% come in," Chopra said.
The post garnered quick attention on Facebook, already receiving more than 1,700 reactions, 3,378 shares and 635 comments as of Monday morning.
Outrage ensued over the alleged incident, many customers posting that they would never eat at the Davenport restaurant again.
The heat transferred over to the Polk County Sheriffs Office Facebook page which issued a statement saying that they will be meeting with Ale House ownership/management on Monday to discuss the incident.
"We have been told by management that there was a miscommunication and misunderstanding that occurred and that they very much regret what happened. I think everyone understands that management and ownership does not always agree with what an employee or sub-contractor says or does."
The following is the full statement that the Polk County Sheriffs Office posted on their Facebook page:
Despite the apology and the alleged misunderstand, Crystal Nobre says her law-enforcement family won't be dining at Davenport's Ale House any time soon.
"We as wives want our guys to be respected. The men and women in blue don't get enough respect as it is and two days prior to that they laid two of their brothers to rest one city over and for an establishment to turn them away for dinner I'm not going to have that. It's unacceptable in my mind as a police wife." Nobre said.
