Customer goes on racist rant over taco special in Anaheim

ANAHEIM, Calif. (FOX 11) - A customer -- confused about a special at a taco restaurant -- went on a racially-charged tirade after learning he couldn't get his $2 taco on Monday. The man scared employees and yelled several threats to them before taking off.

Several signs greet visitors to Palapas Tacos on Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim, advertising daily specials in both English and Spanish. But Monday, a customer misunderstood a banner advertising "Fish Tacos for $1.99 All Day," but he didn't understand the header: "Especial de Viernes," indicating the restaurant's Friday special.

"I hear all this screaming. So I'm like, 'What's going on?'" said Juan Del Rio, owner of Palapas Tacos. "This customer, I found out, he was not understanding the special being Friday instead of Monday." He says the man became belligerent, not only with employees but with other customers as well.

Security cameras caught the tirade on tape. "That's bull____!" yelled the unidentified man. "It says it in Mexican. We're not in Mexico. We're in America! Above the border. The red, the line. I'm an American!

That man is clearly unaware of geography and history. California was part of Mexico until it ceded the land to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American war.

"Everyday we get customers [who] sometimes don't understand the specials, but we explain them," del Rio said. "But this guy was completely mad, upset."

As the man left, del Rio says he followed him outside to try to talk to him. That's when he pulled out his cell phone and recorded the man making threats.

In the cell phone video, del Rio asks, "Who are you going to call?" The man responds, "Immigration! Because you're not legal!"

"I just feel like it's sad that there's people [who] actually that think like that, that they own this country," del Rio lamented. "I don't know. But over a taco?