Dupage Policy Journal

An alleged racial incident at an Illinois Buffalo Wild Wings last fall was a hoax caused by a server at the restaurant who gloated as she quit that she had "started a tornado," according to interviews conducted by the Naperville Police Department.

The incident occurred on Oct. 26 at the Buffalo Wild Wings on 75th Street when a party of 18 came into the restaurant and was seated next to a table that had two other customers at it.

"The table with 2 customers are regulars to the restaurant and asked their waitress if they could seat the large group elsewhere since the dining room was mostly empty and there was not much room around them," the reporting officer wrote in a report obtained by the Dupage Policy Journal.  "The staff seated the group next to the couple anyway because the tables had already been set. Shortly after seating the group, another server and the greeter approached the group and advised them the couple did not want to sit next to them because the couple was racist."

Unaware of what had been said by the other server and greeter, the larger party's waitress asked if the group would like to move to an area with more room.

"The group became enraged because they believed they were being told to move because of their race," the report states. "[Name redacted by Naperville police] attempted to explain that it was only a matter of making them more comfortable. While [name redacted] was speaking to the group, [name redacted] returned to the table and advised them 'If they`re going to serve racists here then I quit'."

The group left, but later one of its members posted about the incident on Facebook, which was shared many times, causing the restaurant to receive hundreds of threatening phone calls.

"The host went up to my husband and asked 'what race are you guys?' My husband asked him why it mattered and the host responded that a table with 2 of their "regular customers' were next to where we were to be seated and he didn`t want us sitting there because he's 'racist,'" the police report quotes the Facebook post as stating.  

Other restaurant employees on duty during the incident told police the worker who quit on the night of the incident was "laughing as she left and stated she had 'started a tornado'," according to the police report. 

Naperville police also interviewed the couple, who were regulars at the restaurant but have since been banned from all Buffalo Wild Wings for life. 

The unidentified woman "admitted that [name redacted] is a racist and has made comments in the past at Buffalo Wild Wings that would be considered inappropriate or racist," but insisted to police that they never asked that the group be moved or that anything inappropriate was said by either of them. 

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request sent by the Dupage Policy Journal seeking any recorded police interviews or bodycam footage, Naperville police said that there were "no records responsive for audio and video as it is out of our retention period."