Five workers at a Burger King in New Mexico were fired after a police officer pulled his burger out the bag and discovered a cartoon drawing of a pig and a police badge.
Timo Rosenthal, an officer with the Clovis Police Department, posted a photo of the wrapped-up burger to Facebook with the caption, “When you order food in uniform.” The post soon went viral, leading to outrage over the drawing.
In response to the incident, Burger King offered to send a catered lunch to the Clovis Police Department. It also issued a statement apologizing for the employees’ behavior.
“What occurred is unacceptable and not in line with our brand values,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “When made aware of the incident, the restaurant owner immediately reached out to the officer involved to apologize and terminated the team members involved.”
Given the viral reach of the post, Rosenthal appeared Monday on Fox and Friends to explain the situation. He said, at first, he got a chuckle out of the doodle, but after inspecting the quality of the sandwich, realized that it wasn’t intended to be funny.
“My first reaction was I thought it was comical. I mean, I had a rookie with me and we left the drive-thru, set up at a spot where we would eat, and I pulled out the burger,” Rosenthal said, “and I saw the pig and I was like, ‘Wow, this is kind of funny.’
“I have a good sense of humor, … But once I opened up the burger and saw the burned patties and the poor quality of the burger, I knew it wasn’t a joke, I knew it was out of spite,” he added.
