McDonald's workers are forced to deal with a lot of nonsense each and every day. There are the temper tantrums, the dirty restrooms, the vomit on the floor, the fights, and then there are the children. Never forget the children.
A Reddit thread recently asked McDonald's workers (both former and current) to share their wildest stories from the "Golden Arches." These people have seen it all, and by that, we mean that they have literally seen everything that the cheap fast food lifestyle has to offer. All posts have been edited for clarity.
Why Was She Even There So Early?
“I worked at a McDonald’s in a mall. I got there super early one morning to prep for Black Friday and a lady showed up out of nowhere with two young kids trying to order a ton of food.
I tried to tell her that we would be open in a few hours, but that I would write her order down and have it waiting, but she quickly jumped on my case.
She said, ‘Why are your lights on if you’re not open?’ full of disgust.
I tried to be funny and defuse the situation, ‘I haven’t been here long enough to do the job in the dark.’
That only set her off more and she totally lost it and started screaming, ‘Don’t go to McDonald’s, they aren’t open. What am I supposed to feed my kids?’ There was no one else in the mall, but her, the kids, security, and me. Security showed up and took over from there, but she kept yelling, ‘They aren’t open’ in different mocking tones.”
It’s Bad When The Employees Have To Fight Off Rioters
“In high school and college, I worked at a McDonald’s on the Michigan State University campus. The handful of sports-related riots that happened on campus usually started about a block from the store.
During the lead up to the 2005 riot, we were told that the store was changing policy and would be keeping the lobby open 24/7 starting on the night of the NCAA Final Four tournament. The store manager had not been living in the city during the previous riots so a number of us explained how bad of a decision this was. He ended up sticking with the decision, forbade anyone from taking the day off and said anyone that called in sick would be fired.
Fast forward to the fateful evening and I was out having a smoke, watching students gather in the street down the block. The police showed up in riot gear and formed a line across the street. I went back in and told my manager about it before going back to the drive-thru register. Not five minutes later, he came back and asked me if I wanted to go home. I think I said yes before he even finished the sentence and he just said, ‘I’ll give you a ride.’
The two of us, along with two others, all left and locked the door, leaving the other manager and remaining employees to figure out what to do. My manager and I went back to his place and got wasted.
We ignored our phones and woke up the next day to find that the store manager had been called. He ended up getting the other two that had walked out to come back and had reopened the store. Unfortunately, they had just reopened the doors when the police started tear gassing the rioters down the street.
The rioters fled right into the store and started raiding the place. The store manager began handing out mop handles and other blunt objects for employees to fend off the rioters. In the end, everyone except the store manager got fired for fighting ‘customers’ on camera.
I enjoyed a summer of unemployment checks and the five times McDonald’s canceled court dates to fight having to pay.”
Why You Should Always Check Out The Bathroom Before You Use It
“I was 11 or 12. My friend and I used to walk to the McDonald’s down the street. One time we walked in to get food, but I had to use the restroom first.
I walked into the restroom and walked into the stall all the way to the back (Handicap). Take note, I saw nothing walking in. It looked fine. There were no warning signs. Everything wrong somehow eluded me just outside the reaches of my vision. I stood there peeing, oblivious to the pit of filth I was in. As soon as I was done and I turned around, it was like a jump-scare from a really intense video game. Directly behind the door was a bloody mess all the way up the wall with a massive ball of diarrhea sitting in the corner on the floor. It looked like an angry xenomorph busted out of somebody’s butt and dragged their body off into the shadows perhaps, leaving a mural of poo smeared all the way out the door. It was ON the back of the door. I had to take my shirt off to touch it and pull it open. I walked out without a shirt on. My friend kept asking me where my shirt went and what was wrong. I kept silent until we got our food and he mentioned he had to use the restroom, and as he turned to go towards the door, I blurted out ‘DON’T GO IN THERE!’ He questioned me for a moment before saying ok and we just left.”
She Really Wanted That Soda
“I worked at a McDonald’s for six years, and there are too many stories to remember. The one that stands out the most is the lady that came in wearing pajamas or something that looked like a gorilla suit. She asked for a water cup but filled it with soda, and not even clear soda. When we told her she was going to have to pay or hand it over, she started screaming at us, ‘Make me, fool! Make me!’
I was a manager, so I was trying to defuse but it was not working. This cup was inching its way up above our heads. She was yelling at my pregnant employee to fight her and I just decided that this was already a bad situation, so I grabbed the cup before she could throw it. I still got soda all over me, but it was better than having it thrown in my face. She flipped out. More screaming. The woman actually took her shoes off and threw them at us. It took four people to hold her down while we called the police.”
They Thought She’d Been Abandoned
“I’ve seen a lot in my five-year tenure at McDonald’s, but probably the most dramatic thing was when a guy left his 4-year-old daughter there in the play place all day by herself.
I was working out there cleaning and making sure everything was in order and on the tail side of the lunch rush I noticed this girl sitting at a table by herself looking kind of distraught. I kept my eye on her for about 15 minutes and when I realized her parent had been gone longer than a bathroom trip, I asked her if she was ok. She was really shy but finally told me her dad left her there. I went and talked to my manager who was terrified by what I told him. She told me to make sure the girl was ok while she figured out what needed to be done. I got the girl some food and a drink, then sat and colored and played games with her for a while.
Finally, my manager came out after she got off the phone with higher-ups and the police and said that the cops were coming, I believe to come get her. Before the cops got there, the dad finally showed up and my manager absolutely ripped him a new one. She was just screaming at the top of her lungs at him in play place, it was really pretty incredible. The cops wound up showing up as she was finishing up reaming him out and then they took him outside and that’s the last we knew of it.
It was terrifying for a while, though. What if he was just abandoning her? Or what if she was taken?”
They Weren’t Expecting This To Happen When They Got Late Night Burgers
“I worked at Mcdonald’s for about two years in high school. I have quite a few stories, but this one is the craziest by far.
Friday night in October, a high school football game ended around 10 pm. Some of my friends decided to come in right as my shift was ending, so I got some food and sat down with them.
After a few minutes, five police cars and S.W.A.T vans roll into the parking lot and arrest a couple of guys outside. The McDonald’s was pretty packed, and everyone crowded by the windows to watch what was going on.
The next thing we knew, four S.W.A.T guys came through both entrances, full body armor and weapons drawn, screaming ‘GET ON THE GROUND NOW.’ They ran to the table probably five feet from where we were sitting and threw this lady on the ground and arrested her. Another guy sitting at a table close to hers got up when they busted in and they grabbed him and threw him on the ground, too. He was innocent and was just trying to get out of the way but the cops didn’t know that until he explained it to them.
It all happened super fast, and when it was all over, the cops apologized to us for coming in so hard, but the woman was wanted for some pretty bad stuff and was in possession of a lot of weapons at the scene.
Reading the paper the next day, she was a trafficker and had over $60,000 in smack in her cars at the time of the arrest.
That was a pretty wild Friday night at McDonald’s.”
And He Thought Being Punched Was The Worst Part
“Back in 2008, I was working in a down on its luck McDonald’s with this crazy silly fry cook named Trevor. This guy was funny and did his job really well, but one day he just decided that on his hourly smoke break that he would go out to his car, do a shot of patron and some coke. He started this cycle at 5 pm and kept it up until we closed at 11 pm. Just as we were about to close, however, we got an order in the drive-thru. Trevor was completely blitzed and messed up the huge $50 order and lost his mind. He took the bags of food and threw them out the window into the customer’s vehicle and then shut and locked the window. Then he started accusing everyone of messing up the order. He punched a co-worker before punching a giant dent into our creamer dispenser. Then he punched me. Then he knocked over a giant tub of sweet tea, then began beating our metal front counter like a monkey. I stood up, cleaned my bloody nose and punched out, as I wasn’t getting paid enough for that.
That night, I called the district manager and reported Trevor. He got fired, as did the manager on duty who did nothing. Weeks if not months later, Trevor started calling the store, harassing me, demanding me to confess that I ratted him out. I denied everything.
A few weeks later, I was sweeping the floor late at night and Trevor walked up to one of the giant windows from the darkness outside. He was smoking and mimed slicing his throat. He came again the next day and mimed shooting himself in the head. I called the cops and Trevor got arrested.
Trevor’s girlfriend was a manager at the McDonald’s across town. He convinced her to steal from the safe. She stole $2,000 and Trevor used all of it to buy coke. Trevor and his girlfriend were eventually caught, and last I heard, they were doing some serious time.”
They Saw A Little Bit Of Everything
“I worked the drive-thru on overnights. I was taking an order when I heard something slam the window. Someone had thrown a huge rock at it trying to break it. I backed away from the window as my manager called the cops. The guy picked the rock up again and smashed the window. He was very obviously high on something… Speed or something.
He reached in to grab the till which was bolted to a shelf weighed down by a ton of heavy stuff. There was no way he could have taken it. But he kept pulling and shaking and managed to move the shelf a good few inches before finally running away. The drive-thru was closed as cops investigated.
Then there was the time this wasted guy ordered 10 McChickens. He was very obviously drinking and driving, so we attempted to keep him at the window until the cops showed up. He thought we forgot about him so he drove around through the drive-thru again. The cop pulled in behind him, but we couldn’t see that. We told him his food was ready and to come back to the window. He reversed into the cop, damaging the car in the process. We had to close the drive-thru for a few hours while the took care of everything and arrested the guy.
Finally, there was the time my hand slipped and landed in the fry vat. I was the manager at the time and kept calling the other managers to cover my shift so I could go to the ER. It was 3 am. They all said no… I called my boyfriend who was also a manager, and he felt obligated to come in so he covered for me. I hated everyone there after that.”
“I Think Someone Died In One Of The Booths”
“I worked at McDonald’s about 10 years ago and the thing that really stands out in my mind was the day we had a guy die in the dining room.
He was an older guy who I’m pretty sure was homeless. He would always come in, buy a sausage biscuit and a coffee and chill in the dining room for hours at a time. Sometimes, he would be there from the time we opened until after lunch. So, we were told by our store manager to keep his receipt and to let him know if the guy was there for more than two hours.
Well, this particular morning, he was in my line. He ordered, I gave him his food, pocketed his receipt, and away he went. I promptly forgot about him.
About an hour later, a customer approached me, and said, ‘Hey, there’s a guy out here who…uh, doesn’t look so good.’
I took off around the corner and saw this poor guy slumped over in a booth, next to the kids’ train tables. I ran back, told my manager, he booked it and tried to shake the guy awake (as he was infamous for sleeping), but got nothing.
My manager told my store manager, who was on the phone, ‘Rick, I think someone died in one of the booths.’
The store manager ended his conversation like a boss with, ‘Listen, I have to go. There’s a dead guy in my lobby. Yes, I’m serious.’
We had to just leave him there until the police came (as they had to do an investigation), along with the paramedics and if I remember correctly, we didn’t even close. McDonald’s at its classiest. It was quite sad. It was even worse having to tell his friend, who would give him a ride most of the time, when he showed up to get him.”
Ah, You Won’t See “D” Any Time Soon
“I worked at McDonald’s in high school. Once there was this new guy, I forget his name, so let’s call him D.
He apparently went to the same high school as me, but I never even saw him. He’d worked there for about a week and he sucked at his job. He always showed up high and had no respect for the managers, but that’s McDonald’s for ya.
One day, during a busy rush at about 5 pm, I was working in the kitchen and D was up front pouring coffee. I saw this well dressed white man in his 50s step behind the counter, which I noticed because I hate when customers do that. The man grabbed D’s attention and said, ‘Are you D?’ to which D said yes. The next thing I know, the man reached into his shirt and pulled out a badge on a necklace. He grabbed D, spun him around, and cuffed him. Suddenly four or five other customers in the lobby reached into their own shirts and pulled out badges. They had D surrounded and dragged him out. It was all over in less than a minute.
We later found out he was a dealer and was constantly posting images of him armed on Facebook. The police called the day before and spoke to one of my managers about it, but she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone.
Needless to say, I never saw him again.”
She Just Couldn’t Escape “Guy”
“I worked was the graveyard manager at a 24/7 McDonald’s when I was 18. The system had to restart every night, so we’d be cash only between midnight and 1 am. This happened to be the busiest part of the night.
One night, we were particularly busy, but I was feeling confident. I would always interrupt the recorded greeting with my ‘Welcome to McDonald’s, just so you know we’re only accepting cash right now.’ There was this man we’ll just call ‘Guy,’ who seemed annoyed but fine with it. He ordered his food and pulled forward. Being the time it was, it was just me and one other person working, so naturally, things were taking a little bit longer to get out especially with it being busy. About three cars were ahead of Guy, they got their food with barely any wait. Then ‘Guy’ pulled up to the window and started complaining about how it was taking forever, and how ridiculous it was. It was legitimately less than 10 minutes, but I apologized and explained it was a usually busy time and there were only two people working.
Annoyed, he went to hand me his card. I reminded him we were only taking cash. He proceeded to call me all sorts of names. I had never been so heated before, and little did I know I had left the headset on and (thankfully) my coworker heard everything; he had come to tell the guy to leave at the same time I was halfway out the window saying, ‘Call me that one more time.’ Luckily, he had pulled me back before I had a chance to freak out further.
He later called asking for the manager to complain about me but hung up after I told him he was speaking to the manager.
The downside was that ‘Guy’ was my coworker at my next job.”
A Crisis Was Narrowly Avoided
“I worked at a ghetto McDonald’s for two years, and I left with so many stories. To name a few:
A lady came up and ordered food. I told her the total and she replied with, ‘I don’t have money.’ I asked her if she would like me to cancel out the order, she said no, so I gave her the total again. Cue lady repeating that she had no money, and us going around in circles. I waved a manager over, who pulled the lady away from my register to talk more. The woman told my manager that I was a member of the mafia because I expected her to pay for her food.
An older man and a lady got in a fight over who was at the front of the line during a busy day because the lady couldn’t wait just a little longer for a sweet tea. A coworker in line behind them trying to get food politely asked the lady (who was the one making the biggest fuss) to leave. Cue her assaulting my coworker, and being forcibly removed by police.
The location where I worked was graded on our quality monthly via ‘Mystery shoppers.’ We knew they would order a standard meal, and could only come in certain hour blocks for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. During one such block of time for lunch, we had two buses full of people come in and eat. As everyone panicked regarding the sudden and huge influx of orders, someone set fire to the giant toilet paper roll in one of the stalls of the women’s restroom. Our store manager walked in for the day to a smoky lobby and all the employees in a state of frantic chaos. That was when I learned our store’s fire extinguisher was locked with a padlock no one had the key to, but that our maintenance girls were quick thinkers and put the fire out with the water from their mop bucket.”
Hey, You Forgot Your…
“A girl and I were working the drive-thru one day when this lady ordered a few cookies that she wanted freshly made. No biggie. She got to the window, paid, and now had to wait for the next car to pull up. In that window of time, the girl taking orders looked over. The lady in the car knocked on my window and when I answered, ‘Yes, ma’am?’ she said, ‘She looked at me, she wanted my attention.’
I promptly handed the situation to the girl by backing up and waiting. At first, the girl was polite asking what she needed, again the woman insists that her attention was needed when she was looked at.
Coworker: ‘No ma’am, I didn’t want your attention, I was just looking out the window.’
Lady: ‘Then why did you look at me? Because, normally, if you look at someone you want their attention.’
Coworker: ‘Ma’am I was just looking out the window, I didn’t want your attention and looking at you doesn’t mean I would want it.”
This lady flipped out and started swearing at her and whatnot. I reached over and slowly closed the window and she drove off mad without her cookies.”
“Yeah, I’m Lovin’ It”
“A guy pooped in the men’s soap dispenser. And then he pumped it a couple of times to make sure it dispensed. A coworker had to deal with that.
Then there was the time I had to break up a fight where a guy’s jaw got broken on Halloween.
Oh, and a local smack head jumped the counter and threatened staff with having their heads dipped in vats. The shift manager locked himself in the office to stay away from the guy.
We just had so many fights over the years, including one involving a blonde transvestite with five o’clock shadow who headbutted someone into the collection window.
There was constantly crap on the walls, on the floors, vomit on the everywhere, needles in the trash can, and Happy Meals in the toilet.
Yeah, I’m lovin’ it.”