Video shows Wingstop employee throw hot oil at costumers

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    PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (WPBF) — Video shows a woman in Port St. Lucie throwing hot grease and ranch dressing at customers at a Wingstop restaurant.

WPBF 25 News obtained the video from the incident which happened on Jan. 28 at the restaurant on Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard.

According to the Port St Lucie Police Department, an officer found two victims who claimed the restaurant’s manager, Carnael Irene, threw ranch dressing and hot grease at them.

One of the victims was a minor, and both appeared to have burns on their skin.

The footage from inside the restaurant shows Irene and a customer fighting at the pick-up line. Both appear to be yelling at each other as another employee can be seen trying to get Irene’s attention.

Sgt. Dominick Mesiti said despite the employees’ attempts to break it up and hold Irene back, the fighting continued.

“It escalates to the point where the manager takes a squirt bottle of ranch dressing, squirts it on our two victims and then one of those victims, in retaliation, knocks over plastic straws,” he explained.

After the straws were knocked over, Irene disappears and returns seconds later with a metal container in hand. Officials said inside the container was hot grease.

“You see our suspect, the manager, grab a bucket of frying oil or cooking oil and while her employees are trying to hold her back, you see her toss it in the direction of the victims who are at that point off camera and you see it splatter onto the floor, and we do know it did hit them in the legs,” Mesiti explained.

Mesiti said one of the employees trying to hold Irene back got the worst of it since he was close to her at the time. He said two victims reported burns on the skin from the oil.

Investigators say the altercation began when the victims caused a scene and knocked over a container of straws. Irene is charged with aggravated child abuse and aggravated battery.

WPBF 25 News reached out to Wingstop’s corporate office for comment but have yet to hear back.

Mesiti said these types of calls aren’t common for their department but said people might be seeing more of them.

“Everybody has a cell phone, most businesses, most private residences have surveillance video, so I think it’s not necessarily you’re seeing more instances of it, you’re just seeing more recorded instances of it, and that becomes viral, so it then changes our perception,” he said. “They’ve always been happening it’s just now they’re recorded and shared virally on social media.”

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