St. Louis store clerk used racist excuse to refuse to sell money order to a black couple

A local St. Louis couple was denied a money order from a Schnucks store, reported Fox 2 News.

Kellen Hill, went to Schnuck to get a $1,100 money order to pay for rent. The store clerk denied him the money order claiming that there could be potential fraud.

He told Hill that he would need cash in order to purchase the  money order. Hill called his girlfriend, and she showed up to the store with $1,100 in cash.

Despite having cash the store clerk still denied the Black couple a money order.

The employee Travis Donahue said he was just following the stores policy.

Hill posted the incident to Facebook. Hill said in his Facebook post: “It’s really sad that you can’t be black and buy a money order without being accused of fraud."

A Schnucks representative said in a statement:

"I deeply apologize to the customers and am incredibly disappointed in the poor judgement that was used in handling this incident. Although the teammate was focused on the recent increase in fraud, once the customer produced cash for the transaction, the money order should have been sold without further issue. I want our customers to feel welcomed and respected in our stores and I sincerely apologize for how our customers were treated in this instance. We have also extended an offer to the customers to meet with them in person to offer our apologies as well."

The store fired Donahue.