A mother from Dunn, North Carolina, is outraged after alleging that a Dollar General employee, believed to be the manager, refused to sell her son a soda because his dollar was deemed ‘dirty’ due to barbecue sauce stains on it.
Angela Smith, the mother of 12-year-old Siah, shared with The North Carolina Beat that on Sunday, July 28, she dropped her son off at a friend’s house and gave him some money that she had received from another store before dropping him off.
Later that day, around 6:50 p.m., Siah called her to report that he and his friend were at Dollar General on W. Cumberland Street trying to buy a soda, but the employee refused the sale, claiming Siah‘s money was “too dirty”, according to Smith.
“He called me and told me that him and his friend were at the store, and the lady at the counter told him that his money was ‘too dirty’ and that she could not accept it,” Smith told The North Carolina Beat. “I don’t remember if he said she handed it back to him or threw it back, but his friend stepped in and gave the employee a dollar to pay for the item.”
Confused about why her son’s dollar was not accepted, Smith went to Dollar General to seek clarification, feeling her son was being discriminated against. In a recording provided by Smith, the employee revealed that the dollar had barbecue sauce on it.
In the audio, Smith could be heard confronting the dollar being dirty and asked the employee to relay to her what she told her son. The employee responded that she had asked Siah if he had a different dollar. In a hypothetical question, Smith asked the employee if she would accept a dollar from her with barbecue sauce on it, to which the employee replied, “absolutely not.”
Shortly after, the employee claimed that when she took the money from Smith’s son, she had barbecue sauce all over her hand.Â
“When I took it, I had it all over my hand,” the unidentified Dollar General employee said.
The employee then returned the dollar to Siah, and his friend offered to pay for the soda instead, as reported by the unidentified employee in the audio recording.
A picture of the employee can be seen below, and we are working on identifying her.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO RECORDING BELOW:
A picture of the dollar that Smith’s son, Siah, tried to pay for his drink with is below.
LOOK AT A PICTURE OF THE DOLLAR BELOW:
Smith said the employee called the police on her and those who were with her, and banned them from the store’s location. She mentioned that when the police saw the dollar that the employee refused, they shook their heads.
The North Carolina Beat reached out to Dollar General’s corporate office to inquire about their policy regarding accepting money with stains on it, like the dollar bill Siah tried to use to pay for his drink, and whether or not the employee. We will update you when they respond to our questions.
