A Connecticut restaurant owner has apologized after the business faced backlash following a social media post that went viral last week.
The post, which has since been deleted by Egg & Cheese restaurant in Willimantic, was meant to showcase a new sign for the quick service breakfast sandwich shop. Instead, the artist who created the sign and was pictured in the post, had a tattoo on his arm allegedly depicting two lightning bolts or “SS Bolts,” a common white supremacist/neo-Nazi symbol, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“The SS Bolts are a common white supremacist/neo-Nazi symbol derived from Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany,” the ADL said.
Egg & Cheese owner Hannah Dupuis took down the post and apologized, noting online that the person in the photos “was not an employee.”
Dupuis also asked the public to please stop calling the restaurant and spamming the restaurant’s posts.
“Guys, please stop. This is out of control and it’s scary,” Dupuis posted. “We have a 16-year-old girl at the counter and your phone calls to the restaurant are making her extremely nervous. The person in the photo is not an employee.
“We have been spam posting, all of our posts, every single day for four years, so no, we weren’t doing that in an attempt to hide anything,” she added. “We didn’t know the significance of the tattoos. The post is now removed, and I apologize for not knowing what the symbol stood for. I will pray for each and every one of you tonight and I hope that God shines his light down on you and shows you his love. God Bless You.”
Phone calls and an email to Dupuis for comment were not immediately returned.
