Dunkin' wrap served with 'anti-American' sentiment

A Lebanon woman and her husband did not appreciate the anti-American sentiment and soiled food that came out of the Cumberland Street Dunkin' Donuts store Tuesday morning, an incident the store owner called "unfortunate."

Matthew Ramsey said he was furious when his wife, Tina, showed him the paper sleeve that was wrapped around her bacon, egg and cheese wrap from the Dunkin' Donuts at 2199 Cumberland Street.

The paper wrap had two different areas of writing on it - one a local businessman's name and work phone number - the other the phrase "final pay!!" The worst part, Ramsey said, was the word "America," part of the Dunkin' logo "America runs on Dunkin," was scratched through so hard that his wife's wrap had ink on it as well.

She saw the wrapper's condition and the ink on her food as soon as she got it through the drive-thru, he said.

Tina called the Dunkin' store when she arrived at work to tell employees there about the wrapper and the ink on her food. According to her husband, they didn't want to talk about it and would not hear her out.

"C'mon, the day after 9/11?" Ramsey said when talking to Lebanon Daily News about the incident. "And you hand this to a white woman in a high-lift truck at the drive through? We're a military family. My grandfather had bronze stars and a purple heart. We've had a lot of family and friends die for this country."

When he saw the wrapper, he went to the store and told the employees he did not appreciate the anti-American sentiment of scratching the word "America" off so aggressively.

Ramsey said at first the workers laughed off what he was saying, then told him he was rude. When one employee threatened to call the police, Ramsey offered a phone number and which township police officer to ask for, and which point the employee put the phone down.

Ramsey also raised his concerns with the Lebanon Daily News about the food safety aspect of having ink on a food item handed to you from a restaurant. 

Will Nichols, a spokesperson with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, told LDN that getting ink from a pen on food served to a customer is "absolutely" a food safety violation, "plain and simple."

"That kind of activity is covered under general practices," Nichols said. All licensed food service organizations must have Safe-Serve training to make sure what the consumer gets is not contaminated in any way. "Protection from unapproved additives" is part of rule 3-302.14 of the Food and Drug Administration's US Public Health Service Food Code.

Ashmin Patel identified himself to LDN as the owner of the Cumberland Dunkin' Donuts store, and called what was on the wrapper "an unfortunate comment."

"I talked to my girls who work there. Everybody loves America," he said.

By interviewing employees, he determined that on Monday an employee was on the phone arranging for WIC benefits, and needed to take down information. She used a paper food sleeve to write down the name and work number of her previous employee and the phrase "Final Pay!!"

When Patel was asked what the fervent scratching off of "America" could have meant, he said he didn't know, and didn't think she could know what was going on "in her unconscious mind."

"She is an all-white American girl," Patel described this employee, adding she doesn't consciously hate America. 

When asked how a paper sleeve used for note-taking on Monday ended up holding a breakfast wrap on Tuesday morning, Patel said "that should have been kept separate. Nobody quite paid attention," he said, using the word "negligence" to determine how one employee didn't take her note and keep it separate, and how another employee would not have seen the sleeve was used/damaged when making an order the next morning.

"It's a fast-paced environment," Patel explained of the restaurant's atmosphere.

Ramsey said the incident seemed to intentionally target his wife in that the food sleeve was only torn where the word "America" was scribbled out so harshly.

For ink to get on the food, he felt it had to be done when the sleeve was on the food. If the top piece of the thin food sleeve was scratched with a pen when it was on a counter, Ramsey believes the inside of the bottom half of the sleeve would have ink and maybe be torn - but there was only ink on the food.

"I'm a patriot," Ramsey said. "I take this seriously. There is no reason to be like that here, in Lebanon. It's ignorant."

Patel said his employees have no cause to be anti-American to anyone. "The employee who did this is an all-white American girl. I have immigrants that work for me, Indian, Burmese, Spanish. America is giving us a better life than anywhere else."