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Dunkin' Donuts worker throws drink at autistic girl, 8, and her mother in viral TikTok

Aliyya Sakina Sadberry, who posted the TikTok video, said her daughter Lily, 8, who has autism, was 'stimming pretty bad after the drink was thrown'

A video of a Dunkin' Donuts employee chucking a drink on a customer has gone viral on TikTok. The video was posted on the media streaming platform on August 10 and has since found its way to Twitter as well, as a number of users called for the donut company to fire the employee who was seen in the video. 

The context of the altercation seen in the video is not known as it starts off at a point where Aliyya Sakina Sadberry, the woman who posted the TikTok video, threatens a couple of employees to call the corporate office for Dunkin’ in order to report the behavior of the staff. Both the employees are seen enjoying drinks standing behind the counter. While the male employee is in full view of the camera, the female staff member is partially hidden by a machine. “They can fire me,” the female employee is heard saying in the video, after being threatened."I don’t care who you are.”

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As Sadberry tries to go around the machine to get a better view of the confrontational female employee, she throws the blue drink she was sipping from at Sadberry. The customer also claimed that the staff member also threw a drink on her 8-year-old daughter, Lily, who has autism. “Are you fucking serious?” Sadberry explains as she stepped back to avoid getting the drink on herself. The camera captures a stream of the drink splashed all over the top of the counter. The incident reportedly took place in Randolph, Massachusetts.

In a followup video, Sadberry wrote that her daughter was “stimming pretty bad after the drink was thrown,” before adding, “You messed with the wrong one”. The word 'stimming' refers to self-stimulating behaviors, usually involving repetitive movements or sounds. While most of us indulge in stimming in some form or the other such as biting nails, twirling hair around fingers when bored, nervous, or need stress relief, for people with autism, stimming rituals might be more obvious. For example, it may involve full-body rocking back and forth, twirling, or flapping the hands and also go on for long periods, according to Healthline. 

'Fire employee that threw that drink'

As more people came across the video on social media, they started calling for the employee who threw the drink to be fired. "I assume this ASSHATTED employee us FIRED, RIGHT!????" one of them said, while another noted, "@dunkindonuts fire this employee that threw that drink!!! Disrespectful behavior from the employee!!" A third commented, "just saw this and I'm disgusted one of your employees would treat someone this way." The next remarked, "Are your employees alright? Bc they don't seem to be mentally alright. Plus they seem kinda drunk."

Another wrote, "We allow employees to throw drinks on customers?" A commenter tweeted "@dunkindonuts what the hell. You're really gonna hire employees that abuse customers in front of their child THAT HAS AUTISM. This employee deserves to be not only fires, but charged and jailed for this shit. This is actually ridiculous. Such a bad representation of your business." A person reacted with, "please tell me your are investigating this? cause these employees Are very unprofessional and it’s really not a good look for your brand."