text: SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. -- The owner of a teriyaki restaurant in Sedro-Woolley has asked local law enforcement to no longer dine at the establishment, the Skagit County Sheriff's office said Thursday afternoon. Through an interpreter Thursday night, an owner of Lucky Teriyaki told KOMO News that a language barrier appears to have led to a huge misunderstanding about what happened. 
   
   In a post on the Skagit County Sheriff's Office Facebook page, Sheriff Will Reichardt said four of his deputies were eating at Lucky Teriyaki when two went to pay the bill. As they were paying, the owner told deputies they were no longer welcome at the restaurant. 
   
   
   
   "They were told that other customers didn't like law enforcement there," Reichardt said in the post. 
   
   Reichardt said his chief deputy followed up with the owner. The owner repeated the request, Reichardt said, and asked "that we spread the word to other law enforcement that they were no longer welcome either." 
   
   Within an hour, the sheriff's Facebook post had been shared thousands of times, and comments continued to flood in. 
   
   "Regardless of your feelings about law enforcement, that was nothing but wrong on so many levels," Faye Whitney wrote on Facebook. 
   
   "It's their right to refuse service. If customers feel threatened, just like with gang members, they hurt business, so they must go," John Rowlette said in a tweet. 
   
   Reichardt said the owner's request took him by surprise, as the Skagit County community has an "overpowering show of appreciation" for deputies and officers serving there. 
   
   "I said there must be a misunderstanding because I never feel that way when I go over there," said Mike Bennett, who owns a business nearby. "They always seem like really good people. I was kinda like super surprised." 
   
   Through an interpreter, the owners of Lucky Teriyaki said they've received death threats online and over the phone. A language barrier appears to have led to the misunderstanding about what happened at the restaurant, they said. 
   
   While the deputies were eating, an employee noticed some customers at another table had spilled some soup and water, the owners said. The employee couldn’t understand why the customers were getting upset, and wondered if it was because the deputies were sitting nearby, they said. 
   
   
   
   That's when the employee asked deputies if they were about to leave. 
   
   According to the owner, the employee didn’t understand when law enforcement later tried to clarify what had happened. 
   
   The owners said they feel terrible about it, and are inviting members of law enforcement to come eat at the restaurant for free on Monday, July 18. 
   
   "Yeah, I want police to coming," one of the owners said. 
   
   "He means welcome for police officers to come over here," said the owner's son, Xuechuang Li. 
   
   Dave North, owner of The Bullpen Sports Bar & Grill in Sedro Woolley, said he's still planning a police appreciation day at restaurants in Skagit County for early August. It'll be a fundraiser for the Behind the Badge Foundation, and the date and participating restaurants will be announced once North works out the details. Anyone interested can contact North on his Facebook page. 
   
   
   
   ||||| SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. (AP) — The sheriff of a county about 70 miles north of Seattle says a restaurant owner has asked that law enforcement no longer dine there. 
   
   Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt said on Facebook that after four deputies finished lunch at Lucky's Teriyaki in Sedro-Woolley Thursday, the owner asked them not to eat there anymore. 
   
   Reichardt says the deputies were told that customers didn't like law enforcement there. The sheriff says his chief deputy called the owner later Thursday and says the request was confirmed along with a request to spread the word among other law enforcement agencies. 
   
   Calls to the restaurant for comment were met with busy signals. 
   
   The Sedro-Woolley Police Department said on Facebook it's disappointed but they'll continue to respond to the businesses in any way they request.
target: – The sheriff of a county about 70 miles north of Seattle says the owner of a Chinese restaurant has asked that law enforcement no longer dine there. Per the AP, Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt said on Facebook that after four deputies finished lunch at Lucky Teriyaki in Sedro-Woolley Thursday, the owner asked them not to eat there anymore. Reichardt says the deputies were told that customers didn't like law enforcement there. The sheriff says his chief deputy called the owner later Thursday and says the request was confirmed, along with a request to spread the word among other law enforcement agencies. "I understand a business owner has a right to refuse service if he wants to," Reichardt wrote in his Thursday post, which has since gone viral. "I also understand that as customers we all have the right to find some other restaurant to take our lunch break in." But a slightly different story has emerged on KOMO, which says the owners of the restaurant, through an interpreter, are calling the entire incident a giant misunderstanding that was brought about by a language barrier. They say that during the deputies' lunch, other customers became upset after some soup and water spilled; a worker thought maybe it was because the deputies were nearby and asked the deputies if they were getting ready to leave. An employee then further misunderstood when the chief deputy called to confirm the story, the owners say. A video on Q13 FOX shows the restaurant's owner breaking down while talking about the incident, and his son appears on camera to apologize for his lack of English skills; the owners are also inviting law enforcement members to eat there for free on Monday. The AP's calls to the restaurant for comment were met with busy signals.