Veteran Claims Restaurant Refused To Seat Him And His Service Dog

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A military veteran suffering from PTSD claims he and his wife were denied service at Medford restaurant because they were accompanied by his service dog.

Mike Alcorn, talking with Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, stated the Fortune Cookie would not seat him, along with his dog Atlas, despite attempts to explain the situation and the law.

"I was like, can I get a table for two? The guy said, no dogs. I was like, I'm used to reaching a little bit of opposition sometimes, not very often, but sometimes people will be like, 'hey man, he can't come in here. No pets allowed.' I'll have to explain, he's not a pet. He's a service dog. I have the ADA law right here with me in my pocket. So, I started to pull out my card to show the guy, hey, here's the situation. He's not a pet. He's a service dog. The guy was like, 'no, no, no.' Look, let me show you, trying to show him the paperwork. He was like, 'no, no, no, please step aside, I have a customer.' I looked at him, I'm not a customer? He was like, 'you guys can wait outside.'"

He was most bothered that the restaurant staffer refused to even listen to him.

"You didn't know but I was trying to teach you. I was trying to educate. I wasn't being rude about it. I was trying be like, hey man, here's the deal. This is the law. In case you don't know the law, here's the law. He wanted no part of it. It was pretty rude to me, just in general to not even listen to what I had to say."

Alcorn explained his service dog performs a multiple essential functions, in addition to being a companion.

"There's a number of things that he does. He picks up on my hyper-vigilance for when I'm feeling really anxious. He comes in and gives me a little love. He helps me up off the ground when I'm on the ground playing with my kids. I have really messed up knees. If I need help getting up off the ground, I just call him over and he'll come over and I give him the stand command, put my arms on him and push up and he helps provide me some stability. Pretty much, he's just there as a best friend, keep mind going straight and just keep me happy."