HERINGTON, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas police department is apologizing after an officer admitted to making up a story that a McDonald’s employee wrote an expletive and the word “pig” on a coffee cup.

Herington Police Chief Brian Hornaday said in a news release Wednesday that he is “truly sorry for all unnecessary, negative attention and pain that this incident has brought to every person who was affected.”

The apology came after Hornaday announced Monday that the now-former officer “completely and solely fabricated” the allegation that he was handed the coffee cup with the expletive at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Junction City. Hornaday said then that the officer told him the incident was “meant to be a joke” and resigned.

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The owner of the McDonald’s said the restaurant has security video that proves none of its employees wrote the words.

“We hope,” Hornaday wrote in the apology, “that this is always remembered as the act of one person and not that of the chosen few men and women who have the courage to boldly protect and serve the citizens of this great Nation.”