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- Craig Gray and John Burns said the incident happened at an Arby's in Lafayette, Indiana.
- Gray posted a photo of the receipt to his Facebook page on June 6.
- An Arby's representative told NBC News the employee responsible for the slur was fired.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Arby's fired an Indiana employee who wrote a homophobic slur on a couple's receipt, NBC News reported.
Craig Gray and John Burns told the network they had been eating at the restaurant last Sunday when the incident occurred.
"We went to the counter and ordered," Burns told NBC News. "The cashier that helped us, the young man that's been mentioned, seemed really new and a little awkward, but very nice. So a very run of the mill type of fast-food occurrence. Nothing that you would expect out of the ordinary."
But as the couple waited, Burns' partner noticed a slur was written on the order receipt instead of his name.
"Shock, just absolute shock," Burns told NBC News. "This has never happened to me in all my years. I'm from this area, and I've lived here my whole life."
While Burns confronted the cashier, Gray shared a photo of the receipt to his Facebook page with the caption: "So this just happened at Arby's! Happy Pride, huh?"
Burns told NBC News that the cashier blamed the slur on a "computer glitch," but he wasn't convinced.
"I showed him the receipt," Burns told the outlet. "I said, 'Look at this. What is this? Why would you do this?' And that's when he tried to give me some lame excuse about a computer glitch, where he said, 'Sometimes I'll put in a name and it will come out different on the receipt.'"
After Burns requested to speak to the manager, the couple's meal was refunded and the cashier was fired immediately, NBC News reported.
"By the time I sat down on my seat to meet up with Craig and our food, I saw him walking down the street in the parking lot," Burns said.
A representative for Arby's did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
A spokesperson told NBC News that "the franchised employee was terminated within minutes of management becoming aware of the incident." The company also told the outlet that it has a zero-tolerance policy for discriminatory speech.
Following the incident, Burns told NBC News that Arby's response to the incident wasn't enough. He said company representatives had left voicemails and messages for the couple but weren't responsive when Burns tried to contact them back.
"I think they need to have a phone call or phone conversation with me acknowledging what's happened and apologize that way, not just a recorded message," said Burns.
He later added: "It would be nice to hear something from the franchise owner about maybe what they would like to do to try to combat this issue from happening again."
An Arby's representative told NBC News that "that both the franchisee and us at Arby's corporate have both reached out to the guests to no avail."
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