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Subway employee fired for exploding at customer request for ketchup on sandwich

Everyone knows that at Subway, you can dress your sandwich in whatever bizarre combination of toppings you desire.

You want extra chipotle southwest sauce on your tuna melt? You got it. You want nothing but onions and jalepenos on your spicy Italian? You got it. You want buffalo sauce, green peppers and two squirts of vinegar on your foot long cold cut combo? That’s gross, but you got it, you got it, you got it!

But when one Florida man asked his sandwich artist to put ketchup on his Philly cheese steak sandwich, he did not get it. Instead, he got verbal assaults and a death threat for having the audacity to suggest that such a condiment could be paired with the pride of Philadelphia.

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Here’s how the events allegedly went down.

Luis Martinez was at a Subway restaurant inside a Walmart in Orange County, Florida late Tuesday night, reports WFTV. He ordered the same sandwich he always does: a Philly cheese steak sandwich with American cheese, onions and ketchup.

Lawrence Ordone was serving Martinez and refused to put ketchup on the sandwich.

“We don't even have ketchup at Subway -- I've never put ketchup on anybody's sandwich," Ordone tells WFTV.

Martinez was clear — if he couldn't get ketchup, he didn't want the sandwich.

That’s when Ordone flew off the handle, shoving a chair to the side and coming at Martinez.

“Let’s go, fight me like a man,” Ordone reportedly shouted.

Martinez says he threatened to kill him and 911 was called, but by the time police arrived, Ordone had bolted. He's since been fired and has expressed disbelief that he was dismissed.

Ordone offers up this extremely choice quote to sum up the clearly insane incident.

“There's ketchup three aisles down. You can go buy your own ketchup, and I promise to God, you can put as much as you want on it and nobody's going to say nothing.”

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Apparently Ordone’s case may be forwarded to the State Attorney’s Office, but for the time being, he hasn’t been arrested.

The encounter has sparked lively debate about whether or not Ordone’s behaviour was merited.

One commenter on the website Gawker writes “No, no, no. NO KETCHUP! You just let the meat marinate in the cheesy goodness”, while another disputed this assertion, writing, “Wrong. Ketchup on cheesesteaks is delicious. This man deserved to be fired.”

One thing’s for certain — for Lawrence Ordone, ketchup on a cheese steak simply will not stand.