I want to lay this out carefully, because I think the documents speak for themselves once you see them in order. I'm not going to ask you to take my word for anything I can't show you.
The setup. In 2018, I was a Dunkin' Donuts employee in Florida, recovering from a serious injury and grateful to be back doing meaningful work. One day, a Regional Manager — I'll name her, because what follows is documented: Melissa Cromer — saw me pressure-washing a door. She asked what I'd charge to clean the oil-stained drive-thru and parking lots at three store locations. I quoted $600 per drive-thru. She agreed.
That was the baseline. Here's where it grew.
The voicemail. She then directed me to take on substantial additional work — ceiling tiles, landscaping, pest removal — ahead of a corporate "Connect Ops" inspection scheduled for 11AM. She called me at 4:25 in the morning. I still have that voicemail. Regarding the additional work, she said:
"You and I will work out the price when it's all said and done."
📎 Voicemail transcript — posted in updates I completed everything. Hours removing wasp nests, mud daubers, spiders, and snails from windows. Mold removal. Deep cleaning of kitchen equipment. I finished minutes before the inspection team arrived.
Here's where it gets interesting — because what happened next is not a "he said, she said." It's in a sheriff's case file.
The local franchisee paid me for the regular inside work, as agreed. For the special work — the work their own Regional Manager personally directed and verbally agreed to compensate — I received $0.00.
December 5, 2018. I went back to the store to collect what I was owed. According to the official Hernando County Sheriff's Office report — Case 2018-38555 — a 911 call was placed by the store manager, identified in the report as Emily Beth Huff, requesting that I be trespassed for "refusing to leave when employees asked him to."
📎 Case Master Report — posted in updatesNow, here's where I want you to slow down with me, because the dispatcher's own notes — the real-time CAD log from that call — tell a slightly different story than the official report does.
The call sat for over 20 minutes, logged as a "delay." Then, mid-call, this entry appears, word for word from the dispatcher's notes:
"Compl adv that she was just told that last night staff told him to leave and he hid in the bathroom for the remainder of the night."
Read that again. "She was just told." Not "I saw." Not "an employee told me earlier." In the middle of an active call, a brand-new story — about an entirely different night — is introduced, secondhand, in real time.
And in the very next line of the same log:
"Caller adv that subj is still 10-12 and caller is standing by for units."
📎 CAD dispatch log — posted in updatesSo within about thirty seconds of dispatcher notes, the narrative shifts from "I was just told this story about last night" to "and also, he's here right now." Two different timelines, introduced back to back, during a delay in the call.
I'm not going to tell you what to make of that. I'm just telling you what's written in a public record. And there's more in the updates — including the deputy's field interview, and what corporate said when I showed them all of this seven years later.
A trespass warning was issued. I was told that if I returned, I would be subject to arrest. That warning has stood for 402 weeks — for a man who went to collect wages that, according to their own regional manager's voicemail, had been verbally promised.
The total. Let me break down exactly where the number $48,349 comes from, because I want you to be able to check my math:
Unpaid wages for completed work (agreed rate)$3,615
FLSA liquidated damages (2x for willful non-payment)$7,230
Interest accrued, 7+ years$2,504
Emotional distress / retaliation damages$25,000
Additional damages — false report / harm caused$10,000
Total$48,349
What I did about it. I went through every available channel. Customer service. Inspire Brands' legal department — I have a signed letter from their SVP & Associate General Counsel. Roark Capital, the private equity firm that owns Inspire — I have a letter from their General Counsel too. Each one, in writing, pointed me back to the franchisee — despite the fact that the work in question was directed by their own corporate employee.
📎 Corporate response letters — posted in updatesI'll be posting these letters too, because I think it's worth seeing, in their own words, what a company says when you hand them a voicemail, a sheriff's report, and a receipt — and they still say no.
What I'm asking. I’m not looking for a handout. I’m asking the public to help make me whole for work I actually did after a serious injury, while caring for my elderly mother.
Every dollar contributed goes toward what should have been paid years ago.
If you've ever done the work, been told "we'll work it out," and been met with silence — or a sheriff's deputy — you know exactly what this feels like.
Inspire Brands — pay the man.
Full documentation — voicemail, pay stub, time records, the complete sheriff's report, and the corporate response letters — will be posted in the updates, one piece at a time.
