Maskless Dairy Queen manager demoted after viral video shows confrontation with family

A Medford father says what started out as a pre-fireworks trip for Blizzards at Dairy Queen on July Fourth turned into a confrontation over masks, an inappropriate gesture from a manager and an eventual apology from the restaurant’s owners.

News 12 Staff

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Jul 8, 2020, 6:34 PM

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Updated 1,398 days ago

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A Medford father says what started out as a pre-fireworks trip for Blizzards at Dairy Queen on July Fourth turned into a confrontation over masks, an inappropriate gesture from a manager and an eventual apology from the restaurant’s owners.

Brandon Trotta says on Saturday night he took his kids to the Dairy Queen drive-thru in Medford but was disturbed to see several employees inside not wearing masks as required by state law.

“I saw the person preparing our Blizzards not wearing a mask so I told the cashier that I'm not going to take those and I asked if they could remake them wearing a mask,” he told News 12.

He says his question turned into a confrontation with a manager, who cursed at him and gave him the middle finger. Their exchange was captured on Trotta’s cellphone and shared widely online.

“When I asked for my money back she said, ‘Give him his [expletive] money back’ and slammed the door and gave us middle fingers as we drove away,” said Trotta.

Since then, Trotta says he's met personally with the owners of the local franchise. He says they apologized and confirmed that employees are required to wear masks and that the employee’s behavior was unacceptable.

The Dairy Queen released a statement:

"We immediately suspended the employee who made the lewd gesture, retrained our employees about proper mask wearing, and conducted an internal investigation. Upon completing the investigation, we demoted the employee from her manager role and are providing her with additional training."