A Chevron gas station in Modesto, Calif., apologized to a member of the United States military who said he was discriminated against during a recent visit to purchase a soda.
Kelly Kjelstrom, a reservist in the U.S. Air Force, accepted the station's apology, Chevron said.
Earlier, he told Fox 40 that when he pulled out his wallet to buy the drink, a cashier spotted his military ID and said the store doesn’t like his kind and he doesn’t "belong in their country."
He told the station he wasn't certain what country the cashier wanted the U.S. military out of, but he says he left the store without taking the soda.
Protests with American flags and "Support Our Troops" outside the store emerged. Chevron, for its part, managed to get in touch with Kjelstrom. The store is independently owned and the owners are taking serious actions, a spokesman from the company said.
"We are taking steps to make sure nothing like this ever happens at a location again," Sean Comey, a Chevron spokesman told FoxNews.com. "The station owners are taking the allegations very seriously."
Comey said Chevron does not question Kjelstrom’s memory of the event, though the clerk has a different recollection. The store's video surveillance does not provide audio.
"I'm proud to be a military member, defending our Constitution in service so that individuals like him have the right to say what he said," Kjelstrom told Fox40 after the alleged incident.
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