Police officer shamed by stranger for buying Burger King on duty has perfect reply
A COPPER from Brighton had the best response to an outraged woman who tried to call him out for daring to buy a Burger King while on duty.
PC Andre Owen, 25, took to his Twitter page to tell his story, which has now been shared more than 1,000 times.
The Sussex police officer wrote: "To the lady that scorned me for buying food on duty... I’ve not stopped since 07:05 this morning, not even for toilet break.
"I’m over 100 miles from my station and "I’m due off in 45 mins.... with a two hour journey at least!!!! #policearehumantoo”.
He accompanied the post with a picture of his double whopper meal and Coke as well as a coffee.
What the woman was not aware of was that he had effectively worked a 12-hour shift with hardly a break having had to attend an incident in Brighton before having to drive to Oxford.
He told the Mirror Online: "Five minutes after starting my shift, I was assigned to a serious job in Brighton. I dealt with that and then had to drive nonstop to Oxford as part of the same job, single crewed.
"Half an hour into the return journey, I stopped at a service station for my first toilet stop of the day!
"While there, I also got a double whopper meal, apple pie, Coke and a cappuccino."
By the time he stopped at the service station it was already 2pm and was due to finish his shift an hour later – despite having to drive back to the station and deal with a mountain of paperwork.
But while he was picking up his food a woman confronted him, berating him for “stuffing your face” despite there being criminals on the loose.
PC Owen said: "I collected the food and as I left she said something similar to ‘whilst you’re in here stuffing your face, there’s criminals that need catching out there’, I smiled, and just walked away without saying a word.”
To make his shift even longer, on the way back to the station in Brighton he stopped to help a family whose car had broken down on the M23 and helped them to safety behind the barrier.
He finally finished his shift at 7pm, almost 12 hours after he started.
