Current and former employees of a car dealership in Westport, Massachusetts took to local radio on Friday to point fingers and to apologize for a viral video that showed them lambasting a pizza delivery guy over a $7 tip.

And one employee said that an extended video would show that the delivery man was partly to blame for the interaction.

Last Saturday, employees at F&R Auto Sales ordered just over $42 of food and drinks from nearby Palace Pizza, as Boston.com reported. According to an employee at Palace Pizza, the car dealership workers handed delivery man Jarrid Tansey $50 in total, in two twenties and two fives. After he left, the employees then called the pizza place and asked Tansey to come back and return the $7-and-change that he had taken as a tip.


The ensuing heated exchange between Tansey and the employees, who appear to threaten Tansey several times, was posted on YouTube. The video then was posted to LiveLeak and spread across the web from there.

The employees’ treatment of Tansey sparked outrage against F&R Auto Sales, which has been the target of Internet anger and threats the past few days.

There has been benevolence, too. A GoFundMe page made for Tansey raised over $20,000 in the past two days.

But Michael Ramos, the man wearing a plaid blue shirt in the right-hand corner of the video, took to New Bedford’s WFHN Fun 107 radio to say that Tansey was also at fault. The delivery man did not confirm that the extra cash was for a tip, and Ramos said the busy employees weren’t sure how much money they had given him.

“When we were trying to discuss who was gonna pay what, by the time we looked up to see what the driver had in his hand, he was gone,’’ Ramos said. “He didn’t ask us ‘Are we all set?’ He didn’t ask us ‘Is this my tip?’ He just disappeared.’’


That was why F&R Auto Sales called the pizza place and asked Tansey to come back and return their change, Ramos explained. Ramos admitted his reaction — “Get the f—ing owner and the manager on the phone, I want that mother-f—er’s job. I want him fired,’’ he is heard saying in the video — was “a little drastic.’’ Still, he said both sides were to blame.

He argued that video of what happened in their first interaction would vindicate him. However, he admitted to the radio hosts that nobody remaining at F&R Auto Sales has the know-how to access the security tape and upload the video.

“If we knew it was just $7 — he probably would have gotten $7 anyways — it was just the way he took off, and we didn’t know how much he took off with,’’ Ramos said.

Ramos also said his response to call Tansey’s manager came after Tansey uttered an expletive at the female employee wearing the green hat as he left the room. No expletive can be clearly heard in the video.

Ramos was one of three F&R Auto Sales employees who called in to WFHN on Friday morning to air their thoughts on the video.

Gary Batista, a sales manager at the dealership who was not in the video, told the station that Lucy, the woman in the green hat who threatened to “put my foot in your ass,’’ had been terminated from the company. Ramos said he had been suspended for his actions as well.


Both Batista and Ramos said that the video was put online by the man wearing the blue shirt in the bottom-left corner of the video. He is described as a contractor who handled the dealership’s computer services. Batista said he would not be working at the company anymore.

“Hopefully this will die down, because it was a stupid, stupid mistake made by an outside contractor,’’ Batista said.

Later on Friday morning, Lucy — who did not reveal her last name — called in to the radio station and said she had been told by bosses that she would only be placed on temporary leave for a week until the controversy ended. She also said she had been warned that if she spoke publicly, she wouldn’t be invited back.

The company is “out of control,’’ Lucy then said on the radio show, adding that she did not want to return to work there. “The place is trash. It’s scummy.’’

Still, she appeared to hint at Ramos’s explanation of the events when she told the radio hosts that “things are not as they seem.’’

In any case, Batista, Lucy, and Ramos all apologized for their actions and expressed remorse for Tansey.

“I feel very bad for Jarrid that he had to endure what he did,’’ Lucy said. “I would say to Jarrid ‘I’m really sorry for my behavior and treating you that way.’’’

“This was appalling, and I apologize. I apologize to everyone at the pizza place and Jarrid,’’ Batista said. “I find nothing funny about this at all, because I feel for Jarrid. I feel that nobody should talk to somebody in the service industry like that.’’

“The things I said were wrong,’’ Ramos said. “I apologize to Jarrid, he’s a good kid.’’

Both Ramos and Lucy said they had received disturbing threats since the video went viral.

“My children have gotten threats. I’ve had people drive by my home,’’ Lucy said.

“What has happened now is that my family is being attacked over this for no reason, my kids are being attacked, my ex-wife is being attacked,’’ Ramos said. “It’s just ridiculous.’’

A Westport police officer said she was not aware of any investigations involving F&R Auto Sales.