A Popeyes employee says she was fired from her job for uploading TikToks while at work. She decided to get revenge on the location where she worked by recording throngs of cockroaches in the restaurant’s kitchen and uploading the clips to the popular social media platform.
Tynice (@tynice.t.t.r) begins her video with a text overlay that reads, “Just got fired from Popeyes for recording in a public place but ig you didnt know I recorded em roaches too.”
She lambasts the chain for waiting to fire her as they needed her help during one particular shift. When the next day came and they were no longer short-staffed and store management presumably believed that they wouldn’t need her to work, Tynice was fired, she explains.
@tynice.t.t.r #popeyes #memphis #viralvideo #business #roaches #funny #fu #o #omg #whalesquad🐳 ♬ original sound – Tynice_T.T.R
The video then transitions to a recorded discussion between her and her supervisor at the store, who references a TikTok that she made as the reason for her being let go from her job. The manager claims that it is “against Popeyes policy…to record inside the restaurant.”
Tynice tells her manager she wasn’t aware of the fact that she wasn’t allowed to do so, and her supervisor goes on to state that videos uploaded to the app often go “viral,” allowing them to make rounds on the internet very quickly.
“Unfortunately we’re gonna have to let you go, okay?” the manager says. Tynice replies with, “Alright,” and she exits the office, still recording as she walks into the restaurant’s kitchen.
Her video then transitions to a recording of a roach on a wall, a caption on this portion of her TikTok reads: “That mf pregnant,” which Tynice says aloud before she records another roach on the wall hovering above a stack of Popeyes food containers.
A third roach is shown in the video: it appears to be dead, its body upturned near a stainless steel kitchen sink, and then a fourth, crawling on the cooking area’s tiled floor. A significant portion of her video is smash cut after smash cut of various cockroaches, both alive and dead, with assertions from Tynice claiming that the bugs are pregnant, suggesting there is a high likelihood for an infestation in the restaurant.
After recording one roach, she pans up to the food preparation area, indicating that the proximity of the bug is uncomfortably close to where customers’ meals are made. She then shows the fryer baskets, and there are roaches crawling near that area as well.
The bugs aren’t just in the kitchen area either, according to Tynice’s clip, as she records one worker cracking open a box of plastic-wrapped grease, showing that a roach somehow got inside of the cardboard: it rests on the shortening container, unmoving as the worker extricates the chunk of grease from the box.
Other clips in her TikTok show metal containers of uncooked chicken in what appears to be a refrigerator. One of the containers is toppled over and resting on the fridge floor, while another, sitting upright, can also be seen on the corrugated sheet metal floor.
“Bet they’ll serve it to y’all but you love that chicken from Popeyes!” she sings, recording the blood-stained floor caused by the upturned chicken in the walk-in refrigerator.
Another smash-cut shows a small cockroach falling into a bucket of dried rice, she calls out to one of her co-workers, telling her that there’s a pest inside of it. The video ends with Tynice holding a cup of water filled with dead roaches she says she was told to clean up. “Nasty b*tches,” she mutters, closing out the TikTok.
According to the comments section of the video, Tynice told one viewer that the Popeyes location in question is situated in Memphis, Tennessee, “off Showcase.” Trip Advisor, Yelp, and Google all have listings for a Popeyes restaurant in Memphis operating on Showcase Blvd.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Popeyes via email and Tynice via TikTok comment for further information.
One commenter seemed to think that Tynice’s firing wasn’t entirely justified, asking if the policy that prohibits employees from posting TikTok videos from within the store is “in writing.”
Others delighted in her revenge against the restaurant.
“Definitely went out without a bang im holleringggg,” one user wrote.
“This is how you clearrrrrr,” another joked.
“Went out with a bang,” a further user reiterated.
