Cobb County, Georgia: A Georgia Sheriff is under fire after reportedly summoning his deputies to a local Burger King after employees got his order wrong. Recently released body cam footage captured the ordeal that occurred last year in March 2023.
It was then obtained by WSB-TV and the Sheriff’s running mate, David Cavender in the upcoming election who posted the footage on Facebook last week to raise concerns about his opponent.
Instead of addressing the issue with the restaurant staff or management, the sheriff called for on-duty deputies to respond to the scene.
The footage shows the deputies arriving at Burger King and walking up to Sheriff, Craig Owens Sr. who is sitting in his vehicle.
Sheriff Owens can be heard saying: “Hey, do me a favor. I need to get, all I need is the owner name of whoever owns this damn facility or the manager.”
Owens then refers to an unnamed passenger in his truck, saying: “I wanted her a Whopper, no mayo, cut in half, right? (I need to) find out who owns this place so I can do an official complaint.”
The three deputies who answered the call approached the restaurant after speaking with Owens and were met with a locked door.
The employees had locked the door after their encounter with Owens. They let the deputies in after they were told, “nobody is in trouble.”
They explained that there would be no report, that they just wanted the name of the manager and owner of the location.
Mike Dondelinger, who is running for chief deputy alongside, Cavender and Owen’s thinks the ordeal was an “abuse of power and resources.”
He said:
“I’m shocked the sheriff feels so flippant about this issue that he would have deputies run lights and sirens, placing citizens at risk and his deputies at risk, just so he could get information from a business owner that clearly could have been followed up on another day.”
Owens, and his running mate Cavender were both interviewed separately by Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell on Channel 2 Action News about the incident.
Owens tried to explain his reasoning to the interviewer about the ordeal while also conceding that the situation is being politized. He said when he asked for his money back, the manager refused and slammed the door and drive-thru window in his face:
“It was about the wrong order, and it would make my wife sick. If she ate mayo she would get sick, so we clearly explained that to him.”
When Owens was asked why he felt it was necessary to call his deputies to the scene, he answered:
“I thought the best thing to do was to call a deputy. In hindsight, I probably should have just drove off and took the bad service and left and came back another day.”
Cavender maintained his position on Owen’s abuse of power, and said:
“You shouldn’t use that position to make any citizen, whether on or off duty, feel unsafe. Especially when they have to lock themselves in the business. You’re going to tie up multiple deputies that should be serving the citizens of Cobb County when instead they are coming here because you were unable to navigate the turbulent waters of ordering fast food.”
The Burger King incident could affect Sheriff Owen’s reelection bid this year for Chief Deputy. As for now, his damage control bid is in full-swing.
He continued: “Thinking about it now, in hindsight, again I apologize to any of the citizens of Cobb County that this has affected negatively as well as my office.”
Burger King has not responded for comment on the situation.
