Lake Alice Trading Company

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/04/14) */
I was managing on a Saturday night 4/4/15 when one of my employees came to me about a couple having sex in the men's bathroom. At this same time I started receiving complaints from customers about the same thing. I asked one of my male employees...

to come with me and check to make sure there was no one else in the bathroom before entering. Once it was clear I entered the bathroom where I saw a guy's pair of legs with no pants on, sitting on the floor. I also saw a second pair of legs which appeared to be standing. I told the couple that they needed to stop what they were doing and leave. After quite a few minutes they exited the bathroom.
I followed the male and explained that I had to ask them to leave. The male customer was quite understanding and said to close out the tab which was under his female partners name. The tab was $62.00 and when I tried to process the payment, the card which we held to keep their tab open declined. I went back to the male and explained that the card was not working and we would need another form of payment. He handed me $29.00 cash out of his wallet and asked that I try putting the remaining balance on the same card. The card declined again and at this point the female was standing at the bar. I explained to her that I spoke to her partner and that they would both have to leave but the card was declining and I needed another form of payment. The female customer began to get an attitude and argue with me about their actions in the bathroom. I told her that I was not going to argue with her, I knew what was going on in the bathroom and we needed another form of payment.
As we started to walk to our patio area where the rest of their group was the female became more belligerent and argumentative and was refusing to give any other form of payment or leave. She began to harass and threaten myself and staff. Finally a friend from their group gave us his card to pay for the remaining balance on their tab. At this time I asked the door staff to escort the couple outside as they were becoming more loud and argumentative. I used the $29.00 cash the male customer gave me and put the remaining balance on the friends card.
Once the couple was outside they began to slander our establishment and harass new customers as they were walking in. They continued to argue and threaten my door staff, so I told my door staff to come inside and shut the doors. At this point the female entered the establishment again harassing the door staff. One of the door guys took her by the shoulders and guided her back outside off of our property. She continued to yell and harass my staff and customers. I once again I asked my door staff to come inside and shut the doors. The couple made a second attempt to enter the building. At this point I realized they would not be leaving so I called our local non-emergency police line and asked for their assistance in removing a couple that was refusing to leave our establishment.
The couple was aware that I had called the police and still insisted on hanging around and harassing and threatening my staff. At this point I told one of my door guys that if either one of them tries to enter the establishment again to pepper spray them. The female once again attempted to enter the establishment and so as instructed, one of the door guys pepper sprayed the female. I feel that I had exhausted all other options to get them to leave peacefully and felt it necessary to use pepper spray at the time.
Shortly after spraying the female, the police showed up and spoke briefly to my door staff and then went on to speak to the group. They wanted to file a report and so the police took down the information of the employees that were involved. Which all (including myself) were willing to do.
Before the police left I asked if the group was still standing around the corner and what should I do if they come back. The police officers said that he told them to not come back but to call them again if we have anymore problems.
About 30 minutes later after the police had left the couple came back again. At this point I called the non-emergency police line again and explained that the same couple was back.
After the second phone call to the police the couple finally walked across the street to another bar in the area. I watched as they tried to go inside and were not allowed to enter. One of the guys from the group at this point was trying to fight the other bars door staff and their friends were holding him back. Next they tried another bar which they were eventually kicked out of as well. One of their door staff members from the other bar came to ask what happened at our bar because they just had to kick out the same couple. The police showed up again and went to the other side of the street and handled the situation there.
About 2 hours later the female customer started calling and harassing my bartenders and threatening them over the phone. I instructed the bartender to just hang up the phone and go back to work. The female proceeded to call 3 more times yelling and threatening myself and my staff members and demanding their information. I told her that she was threatening my staff and I feel that their safety was in jeopardy and I would not release any information about them to her.
We always try to handle any situation where a customer is being asked to leave discreetly and professionally. Our staff are exposed to many types of people and when adding alcohol can become very scary and even violent. Pepper spray is the least violent way of resolving an issue and is only used as a last resort and with managements approval. We always try to verbally solve issues before having to resort to physically removing someone or use of pepper spray.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/04/23) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
On the evening of the assault by security staff at Lake Alice. The response states false information. I was escorted into the women's restroom by my boyfriend due to nausea and light headedness. After being confronted by the manager in a vulgar manner we exited to pay the tab. When we walked to the bar the manager was already speaking rudly to us and even stated "Go ahead and due something right here I have 4 front facing cameras" I was explaining to the manager that we had already explained to the bartender on duty [redacted] that we were paying cash and splitting the tab with the rest of our party when we first arrived. The manager began to make rude remarks and refused to give us our tab she just demanded a payment, and at no point gave us a bill. In arguing with her for the bill she had security forcibly remove us to the sidewalk out of the property. As we were on the sidewalk OFF the property she continued to harass us and refuses to get the rest of our party to pay the bill. She had her two male security standing in front of the establishment on the edge near the sidewalk. As we tried to get the rest of our party to leave words and comments were exchanged and police were called. Before police arrived our party finally came out to the SIDEWALK with us and gave a debit card plus 30 dollars cash from my boyfriend and myself. After the bill was paid and we waited for police I told the manager I wanted to apologize for the disruption and slowly stuck out my right hand to apologize. Her security then sprayed me in the face WITH NO WARNING as I was on the SIDEWALK at no time did they close the door to the facility and at no time did I leave the sidewalk. At no point was the assault needed. Management and security is horrible and I am owed for the bill that was charged but no receipt or proof of total was given. After I was assaulted we stayed outside on the sidewalk still waiting for police and exchanged numbers with witnesses that saw the assault, many also reported it on yelp to spread awarness, also warned entering parties of the situation that happened. After the police came we left the area trying to get milk to stop the burning from my eyes. We were refused entry and had to walk future down. No threats were made no assault was needed. Staff was not inside facility the assault was made on public property with no warning.
Response from facility is false.