A Kansas family trying to celebrate a toddler’s second birthday got a lot more than ice cream and a candle.
They got an uninvited kiss from the restaurant’s owner.
Kimberly Stinger and her relatives were at Stearman Field Bar & Grill in Benton — the popular airplane-spotting joint right off the runway, on Aug. 28, when a server dropped off a little ice-cream cup with a lit candle for the 2-year-old.
The girl was leaning in to blow it out.
That’s when John Arnold, an equity holder in the group that owns the place, walked up, kissed the child on the cheek, and snuffed the candle himself.
The video, which exploded online this week, shows the stunned family at the table as the man in the white cap leans in. A relative can be seen wiping the girl’s face afterward. One diner at the table appears to be recording the whole thing on his phone.
Mom later said Arnold tried to touch the girl again. She stopped him. Words were exchanged. He left. Police were called around 8:24 p.m. Officers took statements and grabbed the video. They’re investigating it as alleged battery. No charges have been announced.
The restaurant group, A&M Management, put out a statement calling the episode an “unpleasant interaction” between one of its equity holders and a guest. Arnold has a stake in Stearman plus several other Wichita-area spots, including Deano’s Grill & Tapworks, Oak & Pie, and Morgan’s Steakhouse. The company said it is “taking steps to ensure that this type of conduct does not happen again.”Social media was not in a forgiving mood.“Check his hard drive. That was creepy as hell,” one commenter wrote.
Another: “He also robbed this family of a memory.”The airport restaurant is the kind of place people fly into for burgers and plane-watching. On this night, a birthday wish never got made. The candle went out anyway, just not how the 2-year-old planned it.
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