Papa John’s Sacks Delivery Drivers for ‘Butt-Dialed’ Racist Rant

I'm guessing your next order should be free.

  • Share
  • Read Later
Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg / Getty Images

A Papa John's chef prepares dough.

Two delivery drivers for Papa John’s pizza company have been fired for inadvertently leaving a customer a ‘butt-dialed’ voicemail message consisting of a vile racist rant.

Company CEO and Chairman John Schnatter has since issued a groveling apology for the incident, in which a customer in Sanford, Fla., was subjected to multiple ‘N-bombs’ and accusations that African Americans don’t tip. By contrast, the customer insists he actually tipped 21% “as usual.”

(WATCH: Play at Your Own Risk: Hell Pizza’s Scorching ‘Pizza Roulette’)

In the accidental message, which the customer posted to Youtube (warning: offensive language), one of the delivery drivers is heard asking, “Did he tip you?” To which his co-worker replies: “Nope, not at all. I guess that’s the only requirement for being a n—r in Sanford.”

They then proceed to sing an expletive-filled song almost entirely comprised of racial slurs. The four-minute clip has now gone viral and generated more than 180,000 views in under a week. “This is highly offensive, derogatory, and ignorant,” the customer posted below the video.“I am appalled that there were no managers or supervisors … from stopping this kind of conversation in the workplace.”

The branch manager told The Daily Dot that he has received more than 300 angry phone calls since the video was published. Sanford is still reeling from racial tensions after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year. The case is due to go to trial in June.

(MORETrayvon Martin Murder Trial: George Zimmerman’s Defense Fund Is Almost Broke)

Schnatter issued an apologized on the company’s Facebook page on Monday. “Friends, I am extremely concerned to learn about the reprehensible language used by two former employees in one of our restaurants,” he wrote. “Their thinking and actions defy both my personal and the company’s values, and everything for which this company stands.”

The activities of Papa John’s employees already made headlines in May, when a delivery driver from Brooklyn was arrested for selling cocaine stashed inside pizza boxes. Ramon Rodriguez, 45, allegedly sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of narcotics to undercover police officers in New York City on 19 separate occasions since 2011, reports the New York Daily News.

MOREFree Super Bowl Pizza: Papa John’s Promises A Free Overtime Pie to Every American Adult