PHILADELPHIA — A controversy developed when a bakery delivered a cake to the Philadelphia Police Department that read, “Coffee, Corruption, Donuts.” The business said it’s a mistake, the person who placed the order isn’t convinced.
Customer Tina Jones ordered a cake from The Bakery House for her friend’s 25th anniversary at the police agency. The woman said she didn’t notice what the fine print on the badge said until her friend was about to take the cake into his office to share with colleagues, WPVI-TV reported.
The official PPD shield contains the words “Honor, Integrity, Service,” but the words on the cake read “Coffee, Corruption, Donuts.”
Jones says it’s an attempt to smear the Philadelphia Police Department. The bakery claims it was an honest error.
A Philadelphia woman was stunned when she received this cake from The Bakery House in Bryn Mawr. She got the cake for her friend’s 25th anniversary @PhillyPolice. Bakery shop says they are mortified and it was an honest mistake and have nothing but respect for our officers @6abc pic.twitter.com/SRTlJxhCnH
— Jaclyn Lee (@JaclynLeeTV) July 19, 2021
“I wanted to cry because I’m like, ‘I can’t believe they did this,'” said Jones. “That’s so humiliating to put on someone’s cake who is serving 25 years and in a not-so-easy job.”
The Bakery House owner, Sandy Stauffer, said this was an honest mistake caused by an incorrect downloaded image from the internet.
“My decorator is beyond upset, she’s been crying all weekend, we all have been because it’s mortifying,” said Stauffer. “We are not the kind of business that would ever, ever disrespect (the police). Everyone should be respected, this was not done on purpose.”
Stauffer explained the decorator thought the badge image provided by Jones was too blurry to look good on a cake, so the decorator pulled a more crisp, clear image of what appeared to be the police badge from online. Apparently it contained the defamation that became part of the cake.
“We’re tired, we’re pushed because of the staffing situation,” explained Stauffer. “She looked at the images, she saw the clearest one and she printed it.”
Bakery was fully transparent and very remorseful. This is the stack of orders the decorator had to finish. The cake in question was toward the end. Decorator pulled a @PhillyPolice badge from clip art and failed to read the fine print at the bottom @6abc pic.twitter.com/nrcuJAKZIy
— Jaclyn Lee (@JaclynLeeTV) July 19, 2021
Jones declined a refund from the bakery.
“I didn’t want the money back because I knew if I accepted the money back it was like, ok what you did, and it wasn’t,” said Jones.
According to WPVI-TV, Stauffer offered apologies to police and insists the decorator’s actions were unintentional and not malicious.
“This bakery house respects what they (police officers) do for their living, their job, they do a great job and I’m sorry … please don’t ever think otherwise that we don’t respect the police.”
