Black Atlanta woman calls out Dunkin’ after they allegedly held her paycheck hostage. Then she showed up at the store with a message for customers
The check opened another tab
Leaving a job for a better opportunity should usually mean leaving the old workplace behind. One Atlanta woman, however, says she had to return to her former Dunkin’ for something important: the money she had already worked for.
Pay disputes can get uncomfortable fast, especially when both sides disagree over what happened. Dunkin’ customers have watched arguments over money escalate inside stores before. This time, however, the woman standing at the counter was a former employee—and she knew exactly how to make herself heard.
According to TikTok creator Ak Roulette (@akroulette), her former Dunkin’ was “holding” her paycheck after she left for a new job. She claims calls and messages had gotten her nowhere, so she went back to the store herself. Once there, getting her check was only part of what she wanted to discuss.
That was one way to be heard
“Why are you withholding my paycheck, though?” Roulette asks a woman inside the store.
The woman denies withholding it. As the argument continues, another person asks Roulette whether she gave the store notice before leaving. That did not impress the former worker.
“If you wanted to fire anybody in here, would you give them a two week notice?” she responds. Roulette also makes clear why she wanted to move on. “You think I’m gonna work for $11 an hour for the rest of my life?” she asks.
When the paycheck dispute continued, Roulette changed tactics. Instead of keeping the conversation between herself and management, she began speaking directly to customers.
“You shouldn’t eat here,” she tells one person. “I’m so serious. I used to work here.”
That warning soon turned into claims about what allegedly happened behind the counter. In a follow-up video, Roulette explained that incorrectly made or rejected iced coffees could sit around “for hours and hours and hours” instead of being thrown away. When another customer ordered something similar, she claims workers would remove some of the old drink, add fresh ice, mix it up, and serve it.
Concerns about what happens behind a restaurant counter can change how customers look at an otherwise ordinary drink, particularly when cleanliness becomes part of the conversation. Roulette did not stop with the drinks, either.
She also alleged that some bakery products remained around long enough to become hard. Roulette recalled making herself a bagel, taking a bite, and realizing it was stale. When she tried to throw it away, she claims a bakery employee questioned why before giving her a fresh one.
Roulette described a separate incident involving a customer who complained that a French cruller was hard. After the customer returned it, Roulette claims she was criticized for not convincing the person to keep it.
Her accusations extended to the creamers as well. She alleges that some small creamers had spoiled but were still given to a drive-thru customer. Roulette also accused a manager of coughing or sneezing into her hand before touching items around the work area.
Back inside the store, however, the immediate issue remained her paycheck. Roulette told management she planned to keep speaking with customers until she received it.
“We gonna give you the paycheck,” a person tells her in the second video, before adding that they did not want her talking to customers.
That was apparently all Roulette needed to hear. “That’s all I need to hear,” she responds, although she makes clear she plans to stay until the check arrives.
Viewers had plenty to say about the confrontation. “$11 hr is wild in this economy,” one person wrote. Another argued, “2 weeks is a courtesy, not a requirement.”
Others were far more concerned about what Roulette alleged was happening with the food and drinks. “Call the health department asap!” one viewer commented.
For Roulette, leaving for a better-paying job was supposed to be the end of her time at Dunkin’. Instead, she found herself back behind its doors, waiting for a paycheck—and telling the customers exactly why she was no longer interested in working there.
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