COLUMBUS, Ohio — Inside Kai’s Crab Boil on Thursday night, tensions came to a boil.
A customer had stopped in for some takeout food and had trouble with a credit card payment.
Manager Courtney Hickey says the customer inserted her chip credit card but removed it too early. That meant the transaction pinged her bank account for a pre-authorization. Hickey tried to explain that that transaction would drop off of her account, but she says the customer was still upset.
“After I tried to explain all of that, she kinda just hit me,” Hickey said. “Definitely was surprised when it happened, but yeah, I wasn’t expecting it.”
Surveillance video of the incident provided to 10TV shows the customer hitting Hickey on the side of the face with an open hand, knocking off her glasses and then turning to walk out the door.
“It was just more surprising because it just came out of nowhere,” she said. “I didn’t have any marks and no serious damage or anything.”
But Hickey immediately texted co-owner Tiffany Cho about what happened, and Cho rushed to the restaurant.
“I am totally understanding of the customer, of their frustrations with regards to the payment, but when someone’s trying to explain to you what happened, and then you just take it upon yourself to just hit that person out of nowhere – she essentially sucker-punched her – it’s just, it’s just terrible,” Cho said. “And I can’t even convey how angry it makes me that this happened to one of our employees.”
The owners of the restaurant decided to post the surveillance video of the incident on social media, asking for the public’s help in identifying the customer.
“We felt that it was really important to really have our employees’ backs, and we want to find this person and bring them to justice and also to ensure that it doesn’t happen in the future with other people that this person might interact with,” Cho said.
The owners also filed a report with the Columbus Division of Police. Sgt. James Fuqua tells 10TV the case is still open and police would like to find the customer.
In the meantime, Cho says she hopes the video will serve as a reminder that everyone should try to spread a bit more kindness, especially during this holiday season.
“We try to always treat our customers and our employees like family, and we just ask that everybody do the same in return,” she said. “And, if you go out there to eat, just that extra smile or something, you know, you never know what’s going on in people’s lives, that extra smile or that extra thank-you, it may go a long way to brighten someone’s day.”