By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
A WOMAN who was “hit in her head with a bottle” by a waitress at a local restaurant claims police are giving her the run around because of her attacker’s family ties to a senior police officer.
Patricia Chatti said what was supposed to be her birthday celebration at Twisted Lime turned into a horrific ordeal, after she was attacked by a waitress when she asked her to “watch her language”.
“Two girlfriends of mine decided to take me out for my birthday, we go to Twisted Lime and we are seated at the bar. While we were there, a lady was having a verbal altercation with her co worker, who is the bartender, who was our server. All we heard was ‘You fking better fix this’ and she was cursing at him a lot. Everyone could hear her, she continued to make noise for a while and was getting louder and louder. So I said to her ‘Excuse me, if you have an issue with your co worker, everyone in here does not need to know. We are paying customers and we didn’t come here for this, there is a table on the side of you with children. That is not necessary’. She just rolled her eyes at me and continued to curse,” she said.
“So I asked her to speak to the manager and she said ‘Call the f*g manager. You need to eat your food and stay out my business.’ So the manager comes over and took her in the back and came to me and said I should let it ‘roll off my back.’ I told her ‘no’. I said what was happening was unprofessional and affecting my dining experience. So the manager called the owner and he came out, spoke with some other employees and came back to me and apologized and said ‘I want you to know we don’t tolerate that kind of behaviour and we will deal with it.’ He allowed her to continue to work for the rest of her shift and the whole time she is jeering at me and cursing loud so I could hear her and talking very disrespectfully to me. I ignored her.”
Ms Chatti said things continued to get worse and at the end of the shift, the woman was eventually fired – so she was told – by the owner. She said the owner escorted the waitress off the property, but she came back with a vengeance.
“All I know is she walked past me and I pretended to be on my phone because I did not want to have an altercation with her,” she said.
“She went to the bar, asked for a beer and then she grabbed me by the hair, pulling out two of my braids and threw me on the floor. She hit me in my head with the Kalik bottle and started attacking me. I was in shock. Some of her co workers grabbed her off me and she was escorted back off the property. I went immediately to the hospital because my hand, and my head was swollen and I was full of bruises. After I was discharged around 2am I went straight to the police.”
Ms Chatti said since reporting the matter to the police nothing has happened and the woman has still not been arrested. In fact, she said, her attacker has been “taunting” her on Facebook. Ms Chatti said she believes the police will not act because the woman’s husband’s brother is an inspector.
“All I want is justice,” she said. “Why hasn’t she been arrested? What is the problem? I am here visiting, I live in the US now, and I was supposed to be back to work days ago, but I can’t go because of this situation.”
When contacted management at the restaurant confirmed that an incident did take place and that they had terminated the employment of the waitress complained of. They also paid all of Ms Chatti’s medical expenses and have hired full time security.
Calls to the Cable Beach Police Station were not returned up to press time.
Comments
goodread 10 years, 2 months ago
bizarre...
proudloudandfnm 10 years, 2 months ago
And this kind of crap happens all the time. I can't figure out why relatives of police officer's and MP's are above the law. Time to get real, commit a crime and be charged regardless of who you're related too....
B_I_D___ 10 years, 2 months ago
Shock and awe...police watching out for their own instead of enforcing the law and justice.
JohnDoes 10 years, 2 months ago
Thats how it is when you live in a crony society. I was in an accident, near life threatening, and had to run down the police to get an official accident report in order for my vehicle to be repaired. It took almost 4 months for me to get this after going up to the station everyday until they got tired of me coming there, I even went to the complaints. Come to find out the officer had ties with person who hit me and was stalling the process. They basically wanted to me to forget about it. After numerous complaints and constantly going to the station, i was given every excuse in the book as to why the officer did not do what he was supposed to. After putting on so much pressure, they finally gave me the accident report. It took a total of 4 months to receive what I was supposed to receive in 17 days.
The_Oracle 10 years, 2 months ago
35 years ago, was hit by a car driven by a person in the court system, clerical office, they made a left turn on shirley st. from the right lane. Wrote of my motorcycle, almost wrote me off, said person was clearly @ fault. funny how that never came up in traffic court. Said person also tried to drive off, same was included in the police report. when they finally showed up. Endemic in the Bahamas, biggest problem an individual police officer faces, making sure he knows who he is about to write up, ad that his career will not be jeopardized via family connections. Just like witness tampering. Just like Jury tampering. Just like unpaid license fees. same as NIB non payments. Just like bouncing checks. and the list for those above the law goes on. Yet they write more laws, increase penalties, and nothing changes.
larry 10 years, 2 months ago
how does a total stranger get your facebook account in hours sounds odd to me
larry 10 years, 2 months ago
how does a total stranger get your facebook account in hours sounds odd to me smells sweet heart story
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 2 months ago
A few days ago someone asked why are Bahamians so obsessed with who is connected to who...well....here you go...
TalRussell 10 years, 2 months ago
Did Comrade Sister "Chatti" leave a generous tip? Could anything sound more Bahamalander than when your name is " Chatti" and alleging how you were ordered by a restaurant's wait staffer to minds ya own business and to shut ya chatti mouth, all whilst you're expected to eats your meal. Comrades you can't make this stuff up.
carlh57 10 years, 2 months ago
Bizzaro world when it comes to certain peoples social skills, connected relatives and attacking others.....cronyism at it's best...or worse!.....
Stapedius 10 years, 2 months ago
Twisted Lime has a lot of work to do with their service. They try but the skills are just not there. When you have cheap labour you get the dregs. What is this place anyway? A sports bar or restaurant? Management needs to decide.
B_I_D___ 10 years, 2 months ago
Nah...bust out your illegal firearm and pop a cap in her asp!!
bahamianbeauty 10 years, 2 months ago
I SMELL A LAWSUIT.
Advocate 10 years, 2 months ago
Im sad that someone was victimized by this level of arrogance and criminality, however I will never visit this particular business and will draw the attention of my associates to this story. However the inaction of the authorities is another issue
VS 10 years, 2 months ago
Not surprised! This speaks to the calibre of people the restaurant hires and to the overall decay of the moral fiber as a country. Twisted Lime is but one establishment in this country where poor attitudes and unprofessionalism has become the norm. You find it in government offices, healthcare settings, grocery stores, and even in the Church! The attitudes of "who's connected to who" has long existed within our communities and in some instances has allowed criminally-minded people the opportunity to do as they wish to whomever they feel! I commend the restaurant for taking strides to ensure Ms. Chatti did not bear the brunt of medical fees. Now, Ms. Chatti, go and see the Commissioner. He has publicly vowed to instill confidence within the Bahamian people when it comes to the Police Force, and if he is a man of his word (which I believe he is), he will see this matter through to completion.
goodread 10 years, 2 months ago
I've observed that many of the people employed in our finer restaurants and bars are persons who 'grew up tough' from the inner city.
Firebun 10 years, 2 months ago
I am amazed that the employee was allowed to work out her shift. Too much slackness at every level.
pablojay 10 years, 2 months ago
I read this article and came to the conclusion that although the waitress was primarily at fault, Ms.Chatti also contributed to this incident. Sometimes when people go to reside in the U.S., they come back with that same black American attitude, challenging everything and often feel that because they live in America ,they are now a bit better than us,i guess akin to someone from Nassau going to live in a small family island.After she reported the waitress to management, even one of them told her to leave it alone, but she refused. If i were in a similar situation and didn't like the profane language,i would simply get up and leave. That same attitude in our society today contributes to many unfortunate incidents ,especially when you can see the type of person you are dealing with.
sheeprunner12 10 years, 2 months ago
This is why we have so many complaints about our level of service quality in The Bahamas. I trust that this was an Over the Hill establishment............ far from tourist row
And NO am not a slum hater
Honestman 10 years, 2 months ago
This was no over the hill establishment but a fairly high profile restaurant in Sandyport. Unfortunately the ambience of what was once a very nice restaurant has been lost and has become a bit of a lure for jungalists. Management needs to completely rethink its strategy and decide what kind of image it wants to create.
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