Santa Cruz County restaurant receiving death threats after viral tweet
Employees at a Santa Cruz County restaurant are now getting death threats after a post on social media claimed they were taking part in human trafficking.
The owners and restaurant regulars of Whale City Bakery in Davenport were shocked when someone posted on twitter making the claims.
“I was outraged because I’ve been coming to whale city for the last couple of years as a woman and always felt safe,” said local resident Kristi Beck.
KION spoke with the owners of Whale City who say they are now receiving death threats over a post that simply isn’t true.
“We’ve put our life’s work into this and that’s part of what is upsetting, we’ve always tried to do the right and honest thing and to have these utterly false and malicious accusations it’s upsetting,” said owner Kristen Raugust.
He added safety for everyone is something that is always on his mind.
“I want people to feel comfortable and proud to come here and not have any hesitation about their safety,” said Raugust.
The tweets claim a woman inside the restaurant tried to lure two girls into the bathroom outside, telling them to use the one around the corner rather than inside the restaurant.
The women say they went outside and when they were about to enter the bathroom a “strange dude” came out of the bathroom then went back in through another door. The tweet says they left after fearing for their safety and suspected it was human trafficking.
KION went to that restroom to see what the other door inside the bathroom led to, it turns out it leads to the inside part of the restaurant.
Raugust explained they have a door on the outside for beach goers, customers and visitors to use during the day and at night they lock that and have employees use the inside door.
Owners have been in contact with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office about the claims.
The Sheriff’s Office said they never received any reports from victims, they’ve only received a few calls from concerned citizens who saw the tweets.
“We don’t know the identity of the person making the allegations, it’s under social media platform where we don’t have their real name so we don’t have the ability to even reach out at this point we’re looking into what happened to determine if there is any substance to it,” said Sgt. Dee Baldwin.
Raugust said he does not want to downplay the woman’s feelings and said she may have been fearful of something or someone around her, but to makes those claims was hurtful and untrue.
The Sheriff’s Office urges anyone who has been a victim of a crime or notices anything suspicious to call them, rather than post to social media.
