Caught on Camera: Ex-Taco Bell Employee Films Haircut Feet Away From Food Prep Area

An Indiana Taco Bell is under investigation after a photo taken by a now-former employee went viral on social media of a haircut happening at the establishment, just feet away from the food prep area.

Jennifer LeGear was working at the Taco Bell in Kokomo on Thursday when she came across an employee getting her hair cut by another employee in the kitchen. The employee had a trash bag wrapped around her shoulders to keep her hair off her clothing. 

“It was only about three feet away from where you make the food,” LeGear told FOX 59.

She said that she ended up taking a photo of the incident out of shock, and sent it to a few friends through Snapchat. At first, she had no intentions of sending the photo to anyone else, but the photo was later shared on social media.

LeGear said she was fired for taking the photo, so she posted the picture to her Facebook where it has gone viral, amassing hundreds of reactions and comments, and has been shared more than 900 times.

“People deserve to know what’s going on where their food is being made,” she told FOX 59.

In the caption of her post, LeGear said that she was approached by the employees in the photo who allegedly told her, "If you had a problem with it you should have said something," and "I work a set schedule and don't have time to go get my hair cut."

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I’ve never seen anything like it before in my ten years of working in the food industry,” LeGear told WISH-TV.

A health inspection was conducted at the Taco Bell location by the Howard County Health Department on Friday after receiving a complaint the day prior.

A spokesperson for the department did not confirm or deny if the haircut had anything to do with the inspection but said that the results of the inspection would be made public in 10 days.

“Is it really a high risk for food safety or food-borne illness? Is it a critical violation?” Graham McKeen, a food safety expert and the director of Public and Environmental Health at Indiana University Bloomington, told FOX 59. “No, but it's certainly not ideal and creates that potential for contamination.”

LeGear said she is upset that she was fired but feels like she did the right thing. She said she was offered a position at another Taco Bell in town but is waiting to see how the situation at her former employer is handled before returning to work for the fast food chain.