At Noodles & Company, Police Officer Reportedly Denied Service

A Noodles & Company cook reportedly denied service to a uniformed police officer in Alexandria, Virginia, on Monday, sparking controversy and a subsequent apology.

The cook saw the female officer and told the cashier, "You'd better pull me off the line because I'm not cooking for" then gestured at the officer, The Washington Post reported, citing police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal. The cashier reportedly laughed and the officer said, "I guess you don't want my money," and left.

"I'm extremely disappointed. You don’t' want your officers treated in this manner," Police Chief Earl Cook told the Post. "We have a very supportive business community, and that's the last thing I would have expected to happen."

Cook said he visited the restaurant and the manager apologized.

The restaurant told NBC News4 that it was interviewing employees involved in the incident and doesn't tolerate any form of discrimination.

“I must say we have tremendous support from the Alexandria business community, so this is an anomaly for one of my officers to walk into a business and run into this type of attitude,” Cook told the station.

Alexandria Police Union spokesman Pete Feltham attributed the incident to "a couple of bad seeds," telling Fox 5 that "the Noodles and Company business will be handling that internally. Noodles and company has agreed to post signs on their doors that they support blue lives. They’ve been very cooperative with us in this matter and we hope they continue the cooperation. We hope that the business is not judged by the actions of a couple of individuals."

Noodles & Company issued a statement saying, "We are working with the appropriate authorities and local police association representatives to get to the bottom of, and resolve this matter as quickly as possible. We have made efforts to reach out to the police officer involved, but have not yet spoken with her. We will continue to look into the situation and will take the appropriate actions at the conclusion of this review.”

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