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The restaurant chain Chipotle announced Saturday that it had terminated one of its managers for suggesting in a viral video that five black customers were planning to order food without paying -- but on Sunday, the company acknowledged to Fox News that it was considering re-hiring the manager because her suspicions may have been well-founded.
In a series of video clips seen more than 3 million times on Twitter, a Chipotle customer in St. Paul, Minn., identifed as 21-year-old Masud Ali, and several friends are told by a manager: "You gotta pay, because you’ve never had money when you come in here.” An employee adds, "We're not gonna make food unless you guys actually have money."
As Ali and his friends complain about "stereotypes," the videos show employees at the store claiming that the group had previously ordered food on two occasions without paying. The store manager also calls the police in the videos, which were recorded and uploaded by Ali.
But on Sunday, as tweets emerged showing that Ali had apparently made a habit of stealing from restaurants, Chipotle walked back its decision.