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Jackie Harford was surprised to see a "white guy" behind the wheel when she entered James Bode’s car late Friday, May 13 outside her bar, Fossil’s Last Stand on Race Street in Catasauqua, LehighValleyLive reports.
"What's that?" Bode asked, "Excuse me?"
"You're like a normal guy, like you speak English," Harford laughs as she pats his shoulder and apologizes.
That's when Bode tells her to "get out of the car," noting that what she said was inappropriate.
“If somebody was not white, sitting in this seat, what would be the difference?”
“Are you serious?” she asks Bode before turning to a man off-camera, who is reportedly her boyfriend. Bode informs him of what she had said and tells them he’s not taking the ride.
The man can then be heard saying “Really? You’re a f*****g a**hole.” Bode tells him that they’re being recorded on video.
The man goes on to call Bode a "piece of s**t" and says he should "punch him in the f*****g face."
Bode then calls the couple as racists, before the man outside the car refers to him as a "f****ng ni***r lover" and tells him to "get the f*** out of here."
The video concludes with the man slamming the door shut while yelling more expletives and telling Bode to leave. Bode emphasizes that "it's all on camera" and says he'll call the cops.
As of Wednesday, May 18, the video had over 13,000 Facebook likes and nearly 400,000 Twitter likes.
Harford shut down the bar’s website and Facebook page, according to The Morning Call. It was unclear whether the business remained open because its page was no longer listed on Google. Calls placed by Daily Voice Tuesday afternoon went unanswered.
In response, several people took to Yelp to leave negative reviews, accusing Harford, and the man she was with, of being racist.
”Come for the crap food, stay for the racism,” one user wrote. “Bigotry has no place in this country. Their business is as bankrupt as their character. Give your money to small business owners that love humanity, not tear it down,” another reviewer added.
“This place is horrible! I had a burger and fries and it had to be the most disgusting thing I've eaten in my life! I literally threw up after my second bite,” a third user wrote. “Also, the owners are racists, disgusting & horrible people. Never go to this place!! I wouldn't recommend this place to an ant!”
The flood of reviews left the bar's page with a one-star rating, prompting Yelp to temporarily disable posting while it "works to investigate the content."
In a Twitter response, Lyft praised Bode, writing that it is "incredibly grateful" to him for "instantly shutting down this hate and upholding our no tolerance anti-discrimination policies."
Bode wrote on Facebook that he had filed a police report but was “not sure if that will do anything.”
Local police confirmed to LehighValleyLive that the incident is being investigated and that no charges have been filed.
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