Aimeé
Writer Christine Rose or @xtine_rose on Twitter shared a series of drunk texts she received from her Orangetheory gym that seems to suggest something is off behind the scenes.
After what appears to be a much more normal promotional or informational text from OT Gym, there comes an expletive-laden announcement about the gym allegedly closing. It starts, “HEY YOU FOOLS” and gets bolder from there.
“GUESS WHATT!!! We are closing this studio again as this f–king virus is not ending. f–king china!!!! alright so all your memberships are going to be cancelled because we are not going to reopen. we don’t have the funds. so BOOM! listen we are going to miss you. bye you little f–kers.”
Moments later a follow up message reads, “Hey everyone! apologies for the last message. someone is drunk. im sorry.” Is it from the same person?!
THEN some one writes, “come otf. work out is great. you being fat can be a no longer problem.”
And finally it seems like somebody gets a hold of the account and tries to reassure members that they were hacked, and that it is being looked into. This paragraph has proper punctuation and does seem to have been written by a sober person.
But that’s followed up by “IM JOKING THERES BEEN NO HACKING, WE ARE CLOSING. I WANTED TO MAKE YOU HAVE HOPE AND THEN BREAK IT. WE ARE CLOSING B-TCH!!!! PACK YOUR SH-T AND GO.” Okay, not sure who to believe here.
The Daily Mail spoke with Barry Ashby, Director of Operations Orangetheory UK, who said, “Last night a disgruntled employee abused their access to our social media and telephone platforms. We apologize for the content that was posted and the members and prospective members subjected to the inappropriate messages. We have identified the perpetrator and have taken steps to restore the integrity of our social media and communications systems.”
Apparently, local law enforcement has started a criminal investigation.
“Orangetheory does not tolerate hate speech of any kind and we will continue to be vigilant to assure that our social media platforms reflect respect for all members,” he added. “We again apologize to anyone who was impacted by this incident.”
Aside from the racism towards China, the diatribe was kind of understandable to a lot of people:
https://twitter.com/AmberIsAQT/status/1321253336167763968
https://twitter.com/camtyox/status/1321387523562680320
https://twitter.com/pabumake/status/1321244116185960449
https://twitter.com/CloudEdna/status/1321338847884705792
Please send them a hug from me. This is all truly bullshit (though not china’s fault).
— Meg (@MegMcA) October 27, 2020
Only time will tell if this was a total troll or a warning to get your sneakers out of the locker before Orangetheory shutters their doors.
