Racially-Charged Starbucks Hoax Temporarily Closes Store

A Starbucks in Brookhaven, Georgia, was forced to temporarily close Sunday after a viral hoax alleged that a black employee was poisoning items purchased by white customers, according to reports.

The rumor surfaced from a closed Facebook group dubbed "White People Vs Black People (The Original)" when user Shanell Rivers, who claimed to be a Starbucks barista, detailed the ways she messed with white customers at the Brookhaven branch, according to The Washington Post. Rivers' asserted that she spit into a white customer's beverage, put dog poop in a white child's hot cocoa drink and blended blood into strawberry jam used by white man.

"White b—h said her table needs cleaning...I rushed to the table using the bathroom rag," part of the profanity-filled post read, according to the New York Post.

Rivers even claimed to have "pocketed" additional pay after overcharging white, according to Fox News.

The post quickly gained traction on social media as it made its way over to Twitter, which resulted in what Starbucks spokesperson Sanja Gould confirmed to The Washington Post as being a "few" complaint phone calls. The Brookhaven branch, therefore, closed two hours ahead of its normal time of 10:30 p.m.

Starbucks immediately denied such misconduct occurred at the Georgia location.

"We appreciate your concern," Starbucks addressed a customer that questioned the hoax Monday on Twitter. "These posts (one of which uses a stock photo that was pulled from Getty Images) are completely false and created maliciously. Starbucks does not have a partner (employee) by the name Shanell Rivers."

Starbucks also claimed to be "working with local authorities to determine how these fake posts were created and circulated," according to a comment the chain made Sunday on Facebook.

This incident rivals Pizzagate, a since debunked hoax that alleged that a pizza shop in Washington, D.C. pizza was a hotspot used by Democrats working on Capitol Hill for child sex-trafficking. The conspiracy theory first surfaced in 2016 when James Comey, who served as FBI Director at the time, revealed that an investigation into Hillary Clinton's email scandal would be reopened.

Many people fell for the hoax, which even reeled in John Legend and Chrissy Teigen as they were accused of being apart of it.