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AMERICAN FORK — A man who police say loudly yelled at restaurant employees because he refused to wear a mask was arrested Wednesday for obstructing the restaurant's business.
The 21-year-old Provo man was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of commercial obstruction, failing to give police his identity and interfering with an arrest.
On Wednesday, employees at an American Fork restaurant told police that a man came to pick up a DoorDash order but was not wearing a mask. Employees asked the man to put a mask on, stating it was their business' policy.
The man, however, "began yelling at the restaurant staff causing a big scene. Employees of this restaurant describe (his) yelling as a 9, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the loudest they have ever heard someone scream," according to a police booking affidavit.
The yelling was so loud that the restaurant's cooks stopped what they were doing to find out what was going on. The restaurant's manager asked the man to leave, but he initially refused, the affidavit states. The man again refused to leave after employees called police.
He finally left the restaurant as officers arrived. Police stopped the man as he walked away. He refused, however, to give officers his name.
"Officers asked (the man) approximately three to five times to identify himself. (He) refused each time to provide his name and birthday," according to the affidavit.
When the officers then told the man he was under arrest, he resisted and tried to pull away from them, the arrest report says. It took four officers to wrestle the man into handcuffs.
After learning his identity, police said they discovered that officers from other agencies have had recent similar encounters with the man, all of them in relation to disturbances at restaurants similar to the incident in American Fork.
