Woman deemed 'DQ Karen' after dumping Blizzard over counter, employee remains calm

LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WKRC) - A local Dairy Queen employee is being praised for how well he handled a “meltdown.”

A Dairy Queen customer couldn't keep her "cool" after she claimed her Blizzard was watery. The woman went inside to confront the workers, and employees say that’s when she began dumping her ice cream behind the counter.

The video of the woman and the employee is getting people talking. She’s being called the "DQ Karen" online.

This happened at the Hamilton-Middletown Road location.

The customer could be seen talking with a teenage employee who appeared to be calming the confrontation.

One of the customers who witnessed it said the employee handled the situation as best as he could, apologizing to the woman.

"As she's explaining it, she goes, 'Does this look like this would be a blizzard?' and takes it just dumps it onto the floor," said DQ customer Jim Smith.

Smith caught the two-minute altercation on camera. He said after she dumped the ice cream, he pulled out his phone, worried it would escalate. The customer turned her hand over like she was holding a Blizzard.

"I shouldn't have done that," the woman said.

"It's OK. I'll clean it up," the employee responded.

The woman continued, saying, "It's been a rough day." The teen even offered her a refund.

"Everything that came out of this young man's voice was 'Yes, ma'am.' 'No, ma'am,.' 'Ma'am we'll take care of this,'" Smith said.

Smith said he went up to the teen after to see if he was OK and congratulated him on keeping his cool. The teen explained his parents taught him to treat everyone with kindness regardless of their background.

"Kindness should be met with kindness and not the way this lady handled it. So, basically, the video shows what not to do," he said.

Smith says this is a reminder that workers in the service industry are people too.

"If that's what they teach here, I have no problem with my teenagers coming to work here. No problem at all. If that's the type of environment that they've preached and they promote, then hats off to Dairy Queen," Smith said.

The DQ Blizzard Flip is individual to each franchise. Some choose to do it, others don't. Employees explained that the ice cream varies in consistency depending on how long it sits in the machine.

The video has since been taken down from the local Facebook group.

Owner Brad Huelsman said he's not ready to share the security footage of the incident, but will contact Local 12 Tuesday.