A Dunkin’ franchise owner apologized to a young Somali woman and her family after a store employee called the police on them for speaking in their native language at a drive-thru in Portland, Maine.
Hamdia Ahmed, 20, says she, her brother and mother went to a Dunkin’ they often frequent for coffee after a long morning on Monday. While waiting to place their order in the drive-thru, Ahmed says the family was having a conversation among themselves in Somali when an employee on the microphone refused service and threatened to call the police.
“We’re having our own talk. All of a sudden we hear someone say, ‘Stop yelling. You’re yelling in my ear. I’m calling the police. I’m not taking your order,’” Ahmed tells TIME. “They never tried to take our order. She was like, ‘You can leave, or I’m calling the cops.’”
Ahmed says she parked the car and walked inside the store to confront the employee. When she asked the employee why she threatened to call the police, the employee said the family had been yelling and called Ahmed “agitated.” The employee eventually called the police, as people in the Dunkin’ started siding with Ahmed, she says.
Afraid police might follow her to her home, Ahmed says, she decided to wait for them to arrive at the Dunkin’ location. After giving her account of the incident to a police officer, Ahmed received a no-trespass notice that bars her from returning to the store for a year.
Ahmed asked the officer what she had done wrong, to which he responded that sometimes, the drive-thru microphones can seem loud and cause misunderstandings. He told her businesses have the right to place a trespass on anyone “even for no reason,” she says. Representatives for the Portland police department did not immediately return a request for comment.