Belleville, Illinois’ local KSDK.com is reporting that one of their local Denny’s restaurants asked a table of police detectives to leave due to “some customers’ discomfort with guns.”

After local media picked up the story, Denny’s quickly released a statement that insinuates the table of five on-duty officers were liars.

The statement, released to the local NewsChannel 5, read:

"In response to concern raised by our guests about an individual with a firearm, our manager approached the individual and communicated that Denny's policy does not permit firearms in the restaurant. Upon further discussion, we became aware the individual was a plain-clothed police officer. Denny's policy permits law enforcement officials to carry their firearms in the restaurant and we regret any misunderstanding."

The problem is that the police officers contradict that statement. They say their badges were visible and the manager asked them to either put their guns in the car or leave. The police said that they all chose to leave.

In a statement to KSDK.com, the Belleville Police Department stated:

“‘As they were leaving another manager came out, the area general manager came out, and said they're police officers, it's okay. But at that point they decided they'd been harassed enough, they'd been embarrassed more than enough and they just needed to go, they didn't want to cause any more of a scene so they exited the restaurant,’ said Capt. Don Sax.”

The Belleville police chief has since told his officers not to go to Denny’s unless they are responding to an emergency, says KSDK.