Tacoma, Wash. – A group of Washington State Corrections Officers were asked to leave a Tacoma, Washington Cheesecake Factory restaurant because some of them were armed.
Officer Miriam Nichols was one of those officers. She took to Facebook to share her experience.
Nichols said when she and five other coworkers went to the Tacoma Mall Cheesecake Factory three of them were wearing badges and guns. She said they were “visibly identifiable as on duty law enforcement.”
In a post on The Cheesecake Factory’s Facebook page, Nichols said the group was forced to leave the restaurant because they were told by a manager there was a strict no gun policy—that included on duty law enforcement.
The post was shared hundreds of times, with many people expressing outrage– others were threatening to boycott the newly established Cheesecake Factory location.
Wednesday morning, The Cheesecake Factory’s corporate office reached out to the officers. They said a shift manager had misunderstood or mis-communicated the restaurant’s policy regarding weapons.
On Facebook, The Cheesecake Factory replied to Nichols original post: “Miriam, our policy is to allow uniformed and identified law enforcement officials to possess their service weapons on our premises. To the extent that there was a miscommunication of our policy, we sincerely apologize.”
Nichols accepted the apology, writing, “Thank you Cheesecake Factory for reaching out and making it right.”
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