A fast food worker who was fired after a gay couple found a homophobic slur written on their receipt has reportedly claimed it was a "computer glitch".
Craig Gray and John Burns were dining at American chain Arby's in Lafayette, Louisana when they noticed their order name had been changed to "f*g".
The run-in happened during Pride Month, a time that sees celebrations across the world dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community.
Gray took a photo of the receipt and posted it to Twitter, writing: "So this just happened at Arbys! Happy Pride, huh?"
But when he confronted the cashier, they claimed the word was due to a "computer glitch," reports the Daily Star.
"I said, 'Look at this, what is this? Why would you do this?' And that’s when he tried to give me some lame excuse about a computer glitch, where he said 'Sometimes I’ll put in a name and it will come out different on the receipt'," he told NBC News.
Arby's has since said that the worker was sacked "within minutes" of management being made aware of the incident.
"The franchised employee was terminated within minutes of management becoming aware of the incident," an Arby’s spokesperson told NBC News. The company added that it "has zero tolerance for discriminatory speech of any kind".
The couple, who have been together for 17 years, said they were "shocked" at the ordeal and have rarely experienced blatant homophobia.
"Sometimes you’re not exposed to some of those things unless you go out of your way," Burns explained to local NBC-affiliate WTHR in a Wednesday interview.
"(But) sometimes it just smacks you right in the face."
