The Daily Populous Wednesday March 20th, 2024 night edition
Authored by clickorlando.com and submitted by brian_mrfunk

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. – A man was banned from all Buc-ee’s stores “for life” after bringing his service duck into the chain’s Tennessee store, according to Fox News on Saturday.

The man — Justin Wood — posted a video of the incident on his YouTube account earlier this year.

The YouTube channel — aptly dubbed “seDUCKtive” — has close to 3 million followers and features videos of Wood bringing his service duck to various locations, including a subway, a Chuck E. Cheese’s and a Hooters restaurant.

In the Buc-ee’s video, Wood is shown bringing his duck, named Wrinkle, to the chain’s largest location near Sevierville, Tennessee.

During the video, an employee comes over to tell Wood that pets aren’t allowed in the store, though Wood explains that Wrinkle is a service animal.

“I can give you three forms of identification right now if you’d like,” he said in the video.

“I just wanted to make sure, OK. Thank you,” the employee responded.

Wood and Wrinkle then shop around the store a bit more, though another employee approaches Wood and tells him that pets aren’t allowed in the store.

“You’re more than welcome to stay here. The animal cannot; there’s no pets in here,” the worker said in the video. “Your animal, even if it’s considered a service animal, you have to be able to contain it, and it can fly out.”

Wood points out that Wrinkle was “contained,” laid down in a stroller he brought to the store, but the employee insisted that he would need to either take Wrinkle out of the store or put her on a leash.

The video then shows Wood putting an imaginary leash around Wrinkle’s neck before putting the duck on the ground and having her follow behind him.

“OK, I’ll call the cops,” the employee said in the video.

After purchasing a case of water bottles, Wood is shown leaving the store, and an officer pulls up in a patrol vehicle to speak with Wood.

Wood provides Wrinkle’s ID to the officer, who tells Wood that he’s been banned from all Buc-ee’s properties going forward, including both the parking lots and inside the stores.

“It’s not my decision and everything, it’s just theirs and everything...” the officer said in the video. “So if you’re caught on property and everything, you’ll be charged with trespassing.”

A couple more officers show up to tell Wood that his duck had bitten one of the stuffed animals inside the store, and so he owed $16.44.

“I was gonna buy it,” Wood said in the video. “I was trying to buy that whole thing. That’s the whole point.”

The video shows a Buc-ee’s employee coming out to take the money, and Wood hands her a $50 bill.

“No, I don’t want to do that,” the employee responded.

“I don’t want the thing. I don’t want to deal with Buc-ee’s. That reminds me of a horrible experience, and you’re rubbing it in,” Wood stated in the video.

The officers are also shown playing with Wrinkle before the video ends.

Buc-ee’s pet policy states the following:

The Health Code prohibits live animals, including dogs, where food could potentially be contaminated. There are exceptions, however, for service animals and animals that work with police officers. For people with disabilities, specially trained service animals play an absolutely vital role. They make it possible for those with disabilities to work, travel, stay safe, and, in some cases, stay alive. By false claiming that your pet is a service animal, you are poisoning attitudes towards true service animals. In addition, if you enter a facility where an actual service animal is working, your untrained animal may jeopardize the safety of the service animal and its handler. Buc-ee's Pet Policy

In addition, News 6 reached out to the “seDUCKtive” YouTube account for comment. The account responded as follows:

An article was written without contacting me at all and it did get all the facts correctly, and it seems everyone is just quoting this article, and now with FoxNews and TikTok getting involved, it’s portraying the story in a misleading way and me in quite the negative light. "Wrinkle & Human"

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