On Monday, Kellen Hill shared a video on Facebook stating that a Schnucks employee refused to sell him a $1,100 money order because he presented a Florida driver's license with his debit card, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
"Due to multiple recent incidents of fraud where subjects were using stolen debit cards and showing out-of-state identification — most frequently from the state of Florida — to purchase high-dollar money orders, the customer was asked to use cash to make the purchase instead," CEO Todd Schnuck said.
Hill then asked his girlfriend to come home from work to bring cash to the store. However, even when Hill's girlfriend showed up with the cash, the employee still refused to sell them a money order.
The footage, which went viral Monday, shows Hill's girlfriend crying while other customers intervene to help the couple.
When Hill asks the clerk if the money order was denied because of a new policy, the employee says, "Yes, but I don't have to tell you any of this stuff."
"I'm trying to help you keep your job. Because racial profiling is not good, bro," Hill tells the employee.
"We're not racial profiling," the employee responds.
Although the clerk did eventually sell the couple the money order they needed, he was fired after the footage went viral.
In a recent statement, a Schnuck spokesperson wrote, "Although the teammate was focused on the recent increase in fraud, once the customer produced cash for the transaction, the money order should have been sold without further issue. I want our customers to feel welcomed and respected in our stores and I sincerely apologize for how our customers were treated in this instance."
