BUTLER TWP — A customer apparently upset over his food order was arrested Wednesday night after police said he threatened to shoot employees at the restaurant.

Township police arrested the suspect, Timothy D. Roy, 55, of Bowerston, Ohio, without incident at a nearby hotel. He denied making any threat.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned Roy on Thursday on charges of terroristic threats, theft of services, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. He is free on $10,000 bail.

Police said they were called around 10:25 p.m. to Rachel's Roadhouse off Route 8 north and spoke to the manager about an irate customer who had just left.

The manager told officers that the customer ordered food for takeout and “started flipping out,” according to charging documents.

While investigating, police spoke to another patron, who recounted that the suspect became mad that his order “wasn't coming out fast enough.”

Once the order came out, the customer appeared to grow even angrier that the food, which totaled $20.45, was on a plate and not in a takeout box.

The other patron told police that the suspect “really flipped out, saying he was going to go to his truck, get his gun and shoot the cooks and employees,” documents said.

The man left without taking or paying for his order.

Police talked to another patron, who also described the suspect as being angry. That patron, however, did not hear the man threaten to shoot anyone.

The first patron told police that the man had told him he was staying at the nearby Fairfield Inn. Officers went to the hotel with troopers assisting.

Police said they found Roy, who matched the description of the angry customer, walking out a side door. They said he appeared intoxicated.

He denied threatening to shooting anyone, investigators said. A pat-down search turned up a small folding knife.

He let officers search his truck and hotel room for weapons; none were reportedly found.

Online court records did not list an attorney for Roy and he could not be reached for comment.

Timothy Roy