Twitter/@tkag2020_ann Stacy Talbert pictured in her viral video.
A Georgia cop named as Stacy went viral on June 17 after a video emerged showing her upset over her McDonald’s breakfast order. Stacy is Deputy Stacy Talbert of the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office. The video was posted on the 41-year-old deputy’s Facebook page on June 15 at 6:35 a.m. In the caption, she wrote, “Please share because no one should feel like this. Law enforcement or not, this is truly how we feel.”
In the video, Talbert identifies the McDonald’s restaurant in question as being located at 8436 Ford Avenue in Richmond Hill, Georgia, as part of Love’s Travel Stop. The franchise is located on the outskirts of Savannah.
Heavy has reached out to McDonald’s corporate office and the restaurant in question for comment. The woman who originally posted the video on Twitter commented when posting, “Stacey who has been a cop for 15 yrs went to @McDonalds. She paid for it in advance and this is how she gets treated for being a cop. Come on America. We are better than this.” The viral tweet of the video misspells Talbert’s first name, which is Stacy, not Stacey.
In a statement to Heavy, the owners of the franchise, Gary and Jill Stanberry, said:
Our priority is for all customers to feel welcome and enjoy a great customer experience in our family-owned restaurants, including local law enforcement officers who protect and serve our community.
Unfortunately, we were made aware of a local police officer who experienced a longer than usual wait time and did not receive her full order right away at one of our restaurants. We have been in contact with this officer to apologize for this unsatisfactory experience and let her know that we would love to correct the inaccurate order when she has time. We are happy to report that the officer was never denied service and also shared positive feedback on the employee with whom she interacted.
As a locally owned and operated business, we work hard every day to treat all of our employees and customers with dignity and respect. We were also proud to be part of the more than 12 million free Thank You Meals McDonald’s provided Healthcare workers and First Responders across the country last month.
In the Video, Stacy Talbert Begs People to Give Police Officers a Break
In the video, posted June 15 after her shift, Deputy Stacy Talbert says she paid for her food via mobile order. Talbert says that when she got to the drive-thru window she began “waiting, waiting and waiting.” Talbert says that she was “kinda hungry” after not eating for “a while” and being awake for a “very long time.” As Talbert describes an employee handing her a coffee, her voice begins to break. Talbert says her order was an “English muffin with a hash brown and coffee.”
Talbert begins to sob, saying, “That’s all she hands me is the coffee. I said, ‘Don’t bother with the food because right now I’m too nervous to take it.’ It doesn’t matter how many hours I’ve been up. It doesn’t matter what I’ve done for anyone. Right now, I’m too nervous to take a meal from McDonald’s because I can’t see it being made.” Talbert adds, “I don’t know what’s going on with people nowadays but please just give us a break. Please, just give us a break. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
Talbert also says people should say “thank you” to police officers if they see them because “[She doesn’t] hear ‘thank you’ enough anymore.” Earlier in the video, Stacy said that she decided to pay for her food via mobile order because people are constantly trying to pay for her food but she prefers to pay for it herself.
InstagramStacy Talbert.
The original video has generated thousands of comments. Many have commented that it is common practice at McDonald’s to give customers their drink before their food. One commenter wrote, “OMG. I can’t. My first job was at McDonald’s. The drink always comes out first. Breakfast sandwiches are made in batches, unless you asked for something special the person in the back is just making batches of them. Hashbrowns are fried in the deep fryer & batches have to be made.”
Talbert wrote on Facebook, “Please share because no one should feel like this. Law enforcement or not, this is truly how we feel.”
Stacy Talbert Has Thanked Her Supporters in a Facebook Post
Facebook/Stacy TalbertStacy Talbert pictured on her Facebook page.
In a Facebook post after her video spread online, Talbert thanked her supporters saying:
To everyone that has messaged, commented, liked, etc. I want to say thank you. Thank you doesn’t even seem big enough. I spoke to many former and current law enforcement friends that saw the support and regained hope. We will continue to press forward and do the best we can for our respective communities.
Talbert also shared something she says her daughter said to her, “My mom is a trooper for going out everyday and dealing with people. And her whole career she has dealt with people threatening her, me, our family…but I’ve never seen it really get to her until now.” Talbert added:
This girl took up for my constantly when her classmates and anyone else was negative about the police. She was my biggest supporter and stuck with me at times when I felt overwhelmed, not only as an officer but also when I was in the Army and couldn’t be with her. Late nights, overtime, missed holidays, this girl was there. Always. She posted my video to her page after calling me. She’s the love of my life.
She also thanked her supporters in another post, saying, “Thank you all so much for brightening my day immensely. I have no words that can possibly express my gratitude.” And she wrote, ” always mobile order so no one knows who I am. Always nice people. That’s why I got such a bad feeling. It sucked.”
Talbert Has Worked for Other Police Departments in Georgia & Sued One of Those Departments After She Was Fired in 2013
Talbert, who is a Newark Valley, New York, native, writes in her Facebook profile, “A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.” Her profile features a thin blue line meme that says, “And maybe remind the few, if ill of us they speak, that we are all that stands between the monsters and the weak.”
Talbert, who also goes by Stacy Jungers, previously worked with the Hinesville Police Department and the Tybee Police Department. In 2015, she and another officer filed a lawsuit against the Tybee Police Department and its former chief after she was fired following a DUI arrest. The lawsuit is still ongoing, according to the Tybee Island city website.
Talbert claims in the lawsuit she was fired in 2011 after arresting a businessman who was friends with the city’s police chief and other top officials, Savannah Now reported. Talbert argues in the lawsuit that she was the victim of an “old boys’ club,” that conspired to cover up the arrest. She said she was punished for not going along with the conspiracy.
InstagramStacy Talbert.
According to Fox 28 Media, “Fox 28 obtained Officer Talbert’s employee file. Records show she was fired for tardiness but her job review showed acceptable performance reviews.” Her attorney, William Claiborne, told the news station, ““Have there been other officers who have been harmed? Are there other individuals whose careers have been impacted just like officer Talbert’s in an effort to cover up for this good ‘ole boys club.’?”
InstagramDeputy Stacy Talbert.
Claiborne added in the 2017 interview, “It shocks the conscious that an officer would do the right thing, cite someone for a DUI, be correct about it and she would get fired and his charges would get dismissed. What she wants more than anything is for this to never happen again and for people to know the truth about the what goes on out there at Tybee.”
The McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office and Talbert have not publicly commented about the video. The Richmond Hill Police Department, which patrols the area where the McDonald’s is located, posted on Facebook, “We have received multiple phone calls and messages about a video that was posted by a female officer complaining about her service at a local restaurant. The officer in the video does not work for nor represent the Richmond Hill Police Department. We have contacted the agency she works for and have passed along our concerns.”
Talbert’s Video Comes After 2 NYPD Unions Accused Shake Shack Employees of Poisoning Officers; Officials Say There Was ‘No Criminality’ Involved in the Officers Getting Sick
Talbert’s viral video came in the wake of allegations made by two New York police unions that officers had been poisoned by Shake Shack employees in Manhattan on the night of June 15. In the early hours of June 16, the NYPD’s Chief of Detectives, Rodney Harrison, tweeted that there was “no criminality” involved in the officers becoming ill. The New York Times reported that the officers feeling ill was related to the “faulty cleaning” of a machine.
FacebookDeputy Stacy Talbert.
The original message read, “Tonight, three of our fellow officers were intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack at 200 Broadway in Manhattan. Fortunately, they were not seriously harmed.” The messages have been removed from both The Detectives’ Endowment Association website and The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York’s Twitter account.
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