What to Know
- A New Jersey woman was shocked to find a racial slur scribbled on her parking valet tag
- It happened at The Tides Estate wedding venue in North Haledon last Friday, souring what should have been a joyous celebration
- The venue has apologized, saying it outsources valet services; Paragon Valet Services CEO also apologized and says it's investigating
A New Jersey woman says she's still in shock over a racial slur scribbled on her parking valet ticket at a banquet hall while she was attending her cousin' wedding over the weekend.
Shanelle Stradford of Bloomfield says she was attending the wedding at The Tides Estate in North Haledon on Friday, and had handed her car and keys over to the valet services.
When she was getting the keys back, she saw the tag attached to them. Scrawled on it were the words "blue Honda" along with the slur.
Stradford was stunned.
"It made me feel very uncomfortable, disgusted and hurt," she said. "Did you think I would be so ignorant or oblivious or not notice it?"
She emailed the picture of the tag to management at the venue. The general manager apologized to her, and sent a statement to News 4 New York, explaining, "We outsource the valet to an outside independent company, which is Paragon Valet Services. The Tides Estate does not tolerate any racism, and will make sure that a full investigation will take place so this never happens again.
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"We are appalled by this situation and in the 37 years that we have been in business, this has never occurred," he said.
Stradford says she wants answers from the valet company. Paragon Valet Services CEO James Myoulis confirmed to News 4 that two of his employees worked the wedding, and in a statement said, "This incident by no means reflects the views of our company or the venues we service. We do not tolerate racism and we apologize to the guest for any pain this may have caused."
Myoulis added that the incident is under investigation, and "upon confirmation, the employee will be terminated."
Stradford said she would let the employee know how cowardly the message was: "You couldn't say this to my face, that's why you wrote it."
