A waiter at the Eat N’Park diner in Homestead said the man looked over at the table of officers and “was like, ‘Nah, I don’t want to sit here.'” So, they got moved to an opposite side of the restaurant.
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“He looked at me hard again and said he’s not sitting here and walked away”, Johnson said.
It was a typical Friday night at Eat’n Park in Homestead, Allegheny County, or so the four officers thought. “I don’t want to sit there.'” Thomas added. You could feel the tension in the air.
Louann Davis, a server, says, “They want to make it known that in our community they are here to be our friends and take care of us”. ‘Thanks for your support’.
Officer Chuck Thomas saw the incident as an opportunity to improve the relationship between the community and police officers following the shooting in Dallas that left five officers dead.
Thomas chose to split the couple’s $28.58 bill with a fellow officer, even leaving the server a $10 tip, and made sure to scribble a message on their receipt.
“Essentially the whole goal of it was to let him know that we’re not here to hurt you, we’re not here for that”, Officer Thomas said.
Later, Thomas told reporters the reason he made a decision to do it.
Homestead police Officer Chuck Thomas told WTAE said he felt that the couple didn’t want to sit next to them due to their uniforms.
After a couple refused to sit near a group of police officers in a Pennsylvania restaurant on July 9, the cops responded by paying for the couple’s bill as a gesture of goodwill.
A group of Pennsylvania police officers who were shunned by a couple at a local restaurant in Homestead chose to fight fire not in kind, but with an act of kindness.
The couple were “thrown back by it”, according to a server there and laughed when they found out that he paid.
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“Ultimately, we’re here for you”, he said. “We’ve got to break that”.
