Dairy Queen worker's intervention nets royal treatment

Jeffrey DeMars | KARE-TV, Minneapolis

HOPKINS, Minn. — A Dairy Queen manager who came to the aid of a visually impaired customer is receiving Internet and social media praise for his heroic actions.

Joey Prusak said on Sept. 10 one of his regular customers came in to order a sundae. While paying, the visually impaired man dropped some of his money on the floor.

"Right then and there I knew when he dropped that $20 bill, game's over, he's not going to know," explained Prusak. "He just kept walking and that's when the lady picked it up and I thought, she's going to give it back 'cause she picked it up so quickly."

Prusak then watched as the woman her put the money in her purse. Initially he didn't know what to say, but when the woman reached the counter to place her order Prusak confronted her. He says they went back and forth a bit: She claimed the money was hers.

"I said, ma'am I'm not going to serve someone as disrespectful as you, so you can either return the $20 bill and I'll serve you, or you can leave," said Prusak. "And she goes, 'Well it's my 20-dollar bill,' and I go, well then you can leave."

The woman left, but was clearly not happy.

Dairy Queen worker earns royal treatment after helping customer Minnesota Dairy Queen worker's actions earn him royal treatment

Other customers saw what happened and one of them emailed Dairy Queen. The email was forwarded to the store's owner, who posted it on a board in the shop.

A co-worker was impressed by what happened and posted the message on Facebook, where others found it and shared it.

"People started sharing it, pretty soon it's on Reddit," Prusak said. "It's one of the top things on Reddit and all of a sudden it's gone viral."

Prusak ultimately gave the customer who dropped the money $20 of his own money.

Prusak had recently asked for a raise but with winter around the corner and business likely to slow, his boss told him it wasn't a good time. He did, however, give Prusak a note.

"He said you're the type of man that I'm proud to know," said Prusak, who started working at the Dairy Queen five years ago when he was just 14.

Prusak has lost count of the numerous news stations and Internet sites that have called him about his story, but one that excites him the most is an inquiry from the "Queen Latifah Show," which has contacted him several times for a potential appearance.