PALO ALTO — A sushi restaurant owner has become the latest anti-Asian American hate victim after she was berated by a customer who lost his temper when told the restaurant would not accept cash payments because of the pandemic.

During dinner service at Fuki Sushi on Aug. 1, a customer in his 50s began yelling at his server after she informed him the restaurant would only be taking contactless payments, owner Lumi Gardner said in an interview.

Gardner said when the customer was told he couldn’t pay cash, he repeatedly yelled “this is un-American, it’s illegal for you to not accept cash.” His server, startled by the outburst, referred him to Gardner, who said she would happily accept cash to “avoid a possibly dangerous situation.”

The man still wasn’t appeased and began a racist tirade against her that she shared on a Facebook post following the incident, Gardner said.

“I don’t understand you,” the man yelled when she talked through a mask. “You are un-American. Where were you born? Where did you even go to school? Did you even go to school here? You are not American. Go back to your country. You don’t belong here, We don’t want you here.”

As he yelled, Gardner said, the man attempted to leave without paying and threatened to sue her “for running an illegal business.” The man eventually paid cash and stormed out of the restaurant.

“It felt surreal that that would happen in my community, let alone my own business,” Gardner said. “When you have your own business it’s like your home. He came into my home and said these horrible things. That somebody feels that way is terrifying.”

Following the incident, Gardner made a police report and has been in regular contact with Palo Alto police, who are currently investigating. Palo Alto Mayor Tom DuBois said the city is “taking the incident very seriously.”

Gardner said that since the incident was reported in a local newspaper, she received a threatening phone call and now police are patrolling by the restaurant.

“It’s sad that I, like, can’t even walk to my car alone now,” Gardner said.

Councilman Greg Tanaka, an Asian American Palo Altan who has also experienced racism in the city, said the incident was “unfortunate” and something that “can’t be tolerated in our city.”

But he said it wasn’t surprising, noting the Bay Area has seen a rise in hate crimes against people of Asian descent. A report published in April showed a 169% surge in Anti-Asian hate crimes across the country at the start of this year, and the Bay Area has had numerous instances of physical attacks against Asians.

“It’s, unfortunately, something that’s still — even in Palo Alto — very prevalent,” Tanaka said. “Some people would say it’s crazy this would happen in our city. You’d think that we’re past that since we’re such a liberal city. But I think there’s a lot of hidden racism.”

Tanaka said he admired Gardner’s willingness to open up about the racist incident, noting that many people of Asian descent simply “brush it off” and don’t make reports.

Gardner said she was shocked to find out that her mother had been called racial slurs just two weeks ago without telling her.

“She was surprised that it doesn’t happen to me as regularly as it happens to her,” Gardner said. “It just broke my heart that my mom has been going through these things without saying anything. I talked to my staff and they also told me about racist moments. It blew me away that they had to deal with it on such a common basis.”

Gardner said she hopes this incident will bring people together to spread kindness and tolerance of other people.

“So many people have come up to me saying the situation had made their blood boil,” Gardner said. “Out of all people, I understand. But I don’t want that. I don’t want people to feel this kind of rage, that’s not what I want to come out of this. I want people to call out little things. It could be a joke or a passing comment, but there’s so many of those. If we do that, then maybe these things wouldn’t happen as much.”