Seattle, WA
Seattle artist Paul Castle, guide dog Mr. Maple kicked out of restaurant when worker didn’t believe he was blind
A blind Seattle artist and his guide dog were kicked out of a Seattle restaurant when one of the workers accused the customer of faking his blindness.
Paul Castle, who is legally blind, claimed he entered the unnamed eatery with his service dog, Mr. Maple, but was instantly met by the wary worker.
“I walked in with my guide dog, Mr. Maple, and immediately somebody rushed up to me and said ‘no pets allowed, only service dogs,’” Castle said in a TikTok post on May 7.
“I said ‘It’s ok, he’s a service dog.’” the author said. “He looked at me, he looked at Maple, he said ’emotional support dog?’”
According to WAFB, Castle has less than 10 percent of his vision.
He insisted that Mr. Maple was a “guide dog for the blind” before showing off the pooch’s designated harness to the worker.
Castle told the employee he was blind, but the man wasn’t buying the artist’s story.
“‘You don’t look blind,” the man stated before Castle explained that “a lot of people in the blind community still have some functional vision.”
“You’re looking right at me,” “Yes but it’s like I have a pinhole of vision, it is all I can see.”
Castle described his vision as “sort of like looking through a straw. I have no peripheral vision, the rest of my visual field is full of static.”
“Listen, this isn’t my first rodeo,” the man reportedly said.
Castle offered to return to the establishment with Mr. Maple’s paperwork, but the employee threatened to call the police if they stepped “foot back in this restaurant.”
Castle and his husband Matthew run the “Matthew and Paul” TikTok account, which has garnered over 2.1 million followers, and was created to give viewers an inside look at the lives of blind people while also spreading awareness about blindness.
“I was speechless, I was shaking,” Castle told the outlet. “I was really upset and disappointed.”
“When I encounter a situation like this where I’m fully rejected not only for my dog, but because my own disability wasn’t believed, it makes me really sad on top of all the struggles that I already kind of deal with,” Castle said.
Federal law prohibits private businesses that provide goods or services from discriminating against individuals with disabilities including those that need service animals.
The goal of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act is to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to goods and services.
The law also disallows businesses from asking for documentation, and animals do not have to wear a vest or harness that indicates they are trained for a specific service.
According to the ADA, To help separate service animals from pets, a business may ask two questions when a person with an animal enters a place of public accommodation:
- Is the animal required because of a disability?
- What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?
Castle, who is not taking any legal action, didn’t name the restaurant where he was thrown out, because he doesn’t want them to face backlash.
He says he shared his experience for educational purposes and, after his video went viral, reached out to the restaurant where he talked to the manager who was sincerely apologetic and promised to better train the employees.
Seattle, WA
Seattle U edges San Diego 58-56 in second round of WCC Tournament
Seattle, WA
FOLLOWUP: See how SFD’s double-dog rescue ended
Thursday, we reported on Seattle Fire crews rescuing “two large dogs” from a 30-foot embankment in The Arroyos. It was in an off-the-beaten-path-enough area that there was no way we could get there for photos, so we asked SFD if their crew might make any available. Today, they did, above and below:
We asked SFD spokesperson Kaila Lafferty if she had any information about the circumstances: “The two dogs escaped from their fenced back yard. It is unclear how they got out of the fenced yard and ended up down the bluff.”
Seattle, WA
Seattle’s Real Time Crime Center triples arrest odds, according to police review – MyNorthwest.com
The rape suspect didn’t know police were watching.
Earlier this year, a Seattle officer took a report of forcible rape and kept returning to the neighborhood, hoping the suspect’s vehicle might show up again. Eventually, it did.
“He immediately called our Real Time Crime Center,” Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes recalled during SPD’s 2025 Year in Review.
Analysts pulled video from the previous day and located the same car described by a witness. The officer asked for confirmation of the registration tag. Analysts matched the plate, and officers made the arrest.
The case is one of hundreds illustrating how Seattle’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC), which launched in May 2025, is changing the way the department responds to crime.
Officers 3x more likely to make arrest with RTCC support, data shows
According to a department analysis of 220,000 calls for service, officers and detectives are three times more likely to arrest a suspect when they receive support from RTCC analysts.
SPD’s Performance Analytics & Research group reviewed every 911 response in the nine months since the center opened. The results, Barnes said, show the impact of pairing frontline officers with real‑time data, video, and investigative support.
The RTCC assisted in 17 homicide cases last year and helped close 10 of them, which Barnes credits for the city’s homicide clearance rate rising to 86 percent, which is far above the national average.
The system is poised to grow with new cameras being installed in Capitol Hill, the Stadium District, and near Garfield High School.
The expansion comes amid privacy concerns.
In fall 2025, the Seattle City Council voted 7–2 to expand video surveillance, adding more closed‑circuit cameras and allowing police access to 145 Seattle Department of Transportation traffic cameras.
More than 100 residents spoke against the move during public comment, concerned that expanded surveillance could expose immigrants, protesters, and marginalized communities to federal monitoring. Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who voted against the measures, warned the system could be misused by federal agencies.
Public Safety Chair Bob Kettle pushed back on those concerns, saying many criticisms were based on misconceptions.
“SPD only shares data with the federal government in matters of criminal enforcement,” Kettle said, noting that otherwise “a federal agency would need to subpoena the data.”
The Real Time Crime Center remains in a two‑year pilot phase, with an independent evaluation underway by the Office of Inspector General and researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.
Read more of Aaron Granillo’s stories here.
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