INSIDE EDITION spoke to the bartender who was fired from her job for calling police on a drunk customer who was getting behind the wheel of his car.
Twyla DeVito is the bartender everyone's talking about. She is a Shelby, Ohio, bartender who was fired after she called cops on a customer who was drunk.
On The Talk Sharon Osbourne said, “I think it’s so unfair she got let go. Hideous.”
The controversy began when DeVito began her bartending shift at the American Legion Hall in Shelby, Ohio. When she walked in, she noticed that one of the regular customers was already looking wobbly at the bar.
DeVito said, “I asked the bartender before how long he'd been here. She said 'All day.' I'm like ‘Ewww.’”
She says she not only stopped serving him, she also called the police.
911 Operator: “Shelby Police, Officer Bushey.”
DeVito: ‘Hi, hey, this is Twyla DeVito.”
Operator: “What's up?”
DeVito: “I had talked, just the other, day complaining about someone that comes down here drinking, and he drives from here to Nanceville, trashed.”
Operator: “Where's here?”
DeVito: “Shelby Legion.”
Operator: “Do you know who he is?”
DeVito: “Mike Ramey. It's a white Envoy.”
Operator: “Mike Ramey in a white Envoy?”
DeVito: Yup.”
Operator: “When is he leaving?”
DeVito: “Pretty quick.”
INSIDE EDITION asked Shelby Police Chief Charles Roub if she did the right thing.
He said, “Do I think she did the right thing? Absolutely.”
Several minutes later, cops found 64 year-old Ramey and pulled him over. He flunked a field sobriety test and cops say he was twice over the legal limit.
But instead of a pat on the back for a job well done, DeVito, a mother of eight, says her boss gave her a kick out the door.
She was told, “You’re fired. This is nothing personal, this is business. I can't have a bartender who will call the cops.”
The president of Mother's Against Drunk Driving, Jan Withers, says she is appalled.
INSIDE EDITION’s Paul Boyd asked Withers, “What message do you think that sends to other bartenders across the country?”
She said, “I hope attention that being brought to this gives bartenders the courage to go ahead and be responsible and try to prevent other people from driving impaired.”
On The Talk, Julie Chen said, "She should not only keep job but be rewarded."
The manager says instead of calling police, Twyla DeVito should have called him first to try to find the patron a ride home. She says she has no regrets.
