A Maryland man has accused his local Chick-fil-A of racism, claiming his to-go order was called “Monkeys.” Marquise Vanzego told TODAY that he went through the drive-thru in LaPlata on Aug. 23 and ordered chicken strips, fries and an iced tea/lemonade drink.

As he called out an order for Marquise, the employee allegedly said, “Monkeys.” “Your heart has a little bit of a sting in it, that’s what it felt like,” Marquise said. “You start thinking about all the other incidents that may have happened that you’ve heard about on the news with racial profiling.”

When Marquise spoke to the manager on duty, the person apologized and offered a refund for his order. In a video of the conversation shared on Instagram, Marquise told the manager, “I’m going to write a letter to corporate about this, this is very insulting.”

‘If you do something like that, there will be consequences’

Marquise claimed he had placed the order directly with a “young white male” who was standing outside the store taking orders. The store owner, John Flatley, told Marquise that the employee would not be fired because he was under 18. Marquise was told that the employee had only written down the name they had heard.

“This Chick-fil-A is an independently owned and operated franchise. The franchisee of this restaurant has apologized to the guest,” Chick-fil-A’s corporate marketing department said in a statement. “However, this experience did not meet our expectations and was unacceptable.”

Marquise said he hoped the employee would become more “socially aware” after what happened. “I believe he should be held accountable for what he did,” Vanzego said.

“I understand, he’s a young man, he’s 17, he’s still learning. But he also needs to know that there are consequences when you do something like that,” he added.