Two Florida hearse drivers have been fired after making a pit stop to get coffee while bringing an Army veteran to his funeral.
Rob Carpenter spotted the hearse parked in the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot in New Port Richey on Tuesday. The curtains were open and inside lay the flag-draped coffin of 84-year-old Lt. Col. Jesse Coleman, a decorated soldier that served in Korea and Vietnam. Carpenter confronted the two drivers as they made their way back to the hearse -- with coffee and a bag of doughnuts in their hands.
"So you have the body of a dead soldier in the back of your hearse and you're stopping to get coffee?" Carpenter asked the men.
Carpenter took video and a snapped a photo of the hearse and then sent it to Lauren Price with Veteran Warriors. She uploaded the photo to Facebook where it went viral.
"I've been on funerals where we had to travel four hours to do a funeral in full uniform in the dead of summer in Florida and we didn't stop to get coffee," Price told ABC Action News.
Both employees, with years of experience, were let go.
"I think if they had the ability to turn back the day, they'd do thing different," said Veterans Funeral Care President Jim Rudolph.
The body of Lt. Col. Coleman was on the way to Lecanto for a service from
About the Author
