There must be something about those golden arches that just brings the crazy out of people because these McDonald's employees have some tales to tell. Whether hilarious, revolting or downright disturbing, Mickey D's workers recount their most memorable stories on the job.
Don’t Mess With The Deep Fryer
“A girl at my local McDonald’s knocked her engagement ring off and it fell into the deep fryer. She stuck her hand in to get it. She barely made it past the wrist. Her skin was reddish-brown and kind of hanging off. It’s weird because the skin on that hand looks younger, minus a couple small scars.”
All Because Of An Orange Juice
“I worked at a 24-hour McDonald’s when I was younger. It was Saturday morning at around 5 am and all the drunks are coming in before we start serving breakfast. Some guy asked for a medium orange juice but I accidentally gave him a small. He threw a huge fit and threw the cup at me and then suddenly everything breaks loose. Some guy starts screaming at him to never treat a girl like that and punches him in the face and then it was just an all out BRAWL with both parties friends’. There was blood everywhere when it was over, the police came, ambulances, etc., and we had to close the store for over an hour, all because of an orange juice.”
They Even Took The McNuggets…
“I was managing a McDonald’s, and it was a long weekend in a tourist area so we were open 24 hours, although there was really no business after 3 am or so. This story takes place on a Sunday morning around 3:30 am. Some girl comes through the drive thru drunk, and orders a bunch of mcnuggets. The employee who took the order let me know about the drunkenness, so I told the employee to tell the drunk girl that her nuggets would take some time to cook, so if she pulled out of the DT and into the parking lot we’d bring them out when they’re ready. So she takes drunky’s money and pulls her ahead. While she does this, I call the cops. A few minutes later the cops show up and arrest the girl. At this point they have the girl (and her passenger) handcuffed and face-down on the pavement. My employees and I are watching this happen from inside the store, and one of them asks me if he can run the nuggets out to the girl now. Thinking this would be hilarious, I let him do it. He runs out and sets them on the ground beside the girl’s face, the cop questions what he’s doing, and the employee lets him know. The cop laughs, tells the kid to go back in the store, and carries on arresting the girls. He gets them loaded in the cop car, but before he takes them to the station, he and his partner sit down in the front seat of the car and finish the poor girl’s nuggets by themselves. It was hysterical.”
Back Away From The Fries
“When I was in high school my best friend and I both worked at the same McDonald’s in the mall. One Sunday afternoon, after cleaning the counter and whatever else we did to pass time, we started playing with the happy meal toys. The Spiderman movie had just come out and the toy we were giving out that week was a plush Spiderman ball, a little smaller than a baseball.
We started off just throwing it to each other, banking it off the walls and the cash register. Rather quickly we began to escalate the game. One would dare the other to bank it off the manager’s window and land it in the ice bucket. What finally put an end to this game was the dare to bounce it off of the basket hanging inside the deep fryer and into the ice bucket. Needless to say, I completely missed the basket and the ball landed in the scolding hot oil. We never told anyone and continued to deep fry the french fries the rest of the day, probably coating them in some sort of cotton/plasticy toxic goop.”
It Was a Weird Night When a Man Trapped a Dog In The McDonald’s Entrance
“I was the manager at a McDonald’s for many years. I have a few good ones. Here is my favorite: It’s a busy night and I’m in the office, and one of my employees comes in saying that some dude is in the lobby screaming for the manager. So I go out to meet the guy, and it’s this old, 50-something dude, freaking out and drenched in sweat. He starts telling me that he’s been chased by a rabid dog for a few blocks and ran into my restaurant to escape. He points out that he has trapped the dog in the entrance to my restaurant (that little vestibule area where you open one door, have that little space to wipe your shoes, and then can open the next door to enter the restaurant itself). I look over his shoulder and sure enough, there’s this giant lab of some sort, freaking out, possibly rabid. Luckily, my store had 2 entrances, so I put signs on the outside of both doors, but couldn’t lock them as the locks were on the inside. I then call the police who agree to send an animal control officer and tell me that this person will arrive in about 20 minutes, and to just keep the dog trapped in that area until then to be safe. A few minutes later, three customers approach me and ask me who’s dog it is. These guys are mid-20’s and are obviously stoned. I give them the short form of the story and they start asking me if they can take the dog and give it a good home. I reiterated what the police told me and told them no. They started begging, but I still kept saying no, not thinking it was a good idea. Eventually, they realize I’m not caving and leave me alone. I go back to work, and a minute or two later somebody in the lobby yells for help. I run out into the lobby and one of the stoners has collapsed and is laying on the floor. I rush to his side and start checking vitals and whatnot, preparing to do CPR if needed. Another customer yells out from behind me, ‘Hey, they’re stealing the dog!’ As I turn around to check this and see that yes, they are indeed stealing the dog, the man who has collapsed stands up very quickly and runs out the other entrance, joining his friends and the dog as they run down the street. I wish I had taken a picture of the animal control officer’s face when I told him this story, as he arrived shortly after this went down. It was a weird night.”
“Many Kids Were Scarred”
“I worked at half a McDonald’s, half Amaco station with a bunch of my high school friends the summer after senior year. One day, we had a kid appreciation day or something like that and we had a Ronald McDonald clown come out and sign stuff for kids and pass out balloons and stuff. Well, our heater started getting CRAZY hot. I pointed it out to my boss who told me to shut up and keep working, so I did. Ronald ran out of balloons and had to walk to the back of the store to get more, and as he passed the heater, his fake hair touches it and it lights up. Fire breaks out and the alarms trigger. The head manager tried to blame it on me, but too many people saw the assistant yell at me for bringing that up. Since the building was originally just a gas station, the fire department came out assuming there was a huge fire at the BP station; probably 10 firetrucks responded within 3 minutes, and another 5-10 ambulances. Ronald was fine, many kids were scarred, and the restaurant was closed for the rest of the day. Oh, we also got paid that day + the next while it was closed. Pretty sweet deal that was.”
Secret, Sweet Revenge
“I was a manager at McDonald’s, and one week I got in a fight with the general manager of our region, as he was being quite the jerk. He was based out of my store, and his office was located there as well. One night, I closed the store with an employee who I happened to be dating at the time, and as I was turning out the lights and saying goodnight to the maintenance guy, she pulled me into his office and explained to me that she thought the best way for me to get revenge on my general manager was to have sex right there, right then, on his desk. Seeing as this offer was too good to be true, I closed the door and we got to it. Apparently, she had briefed the maintenance guy on her plan earlier in the night, so as soon as the door closed he turned up the radio and stayed away from the office. When we were done, I went to say goodnight to him while the girlfriend cleaned up, and then went home. About a week later, my girlfriend relayed to me that she didn’t clean up anything, and just left his desk as it was. He worked on it and ate off it and everything. It made me feel pretty good. I forgave him for being a jerk after that.”
Parfait Cups Gone Wrong
“I worked at McDonald’s for about 6 months during my senior year of high school. I worked with a kid who was disturbed in the head and we had to make the parfait cups together each morning. It involved us opening a big bucket of yogurt, taking a spoonful of it, putting it into the cup then topping it off with berries and such from another container. Anyways, his routine was this: spoonful of yogurt, drop into cup, lick spoon, berries, repeat.”
A Good Christian Boy
“Dude came in late on a weeknight. Hung out for like 3 hours drinking milkshakes. Kept trying to chat me up, telling me I should smile more. I didn’t understand what he was all about until he called the store after closing asking for me. Said he was attracted to me and wanted to meet up for some ‘fun and friendship.’ Finally, my dumb butt figured out what he was after. I was freaked out and all I could think to say was, ‘I’m a good Christian boy and don’t do that kind of thing’…and then I hung up.”
She Threatened To Sue
“I worked at the McD I worked at in Canada. This girl had explosive diarrhea over the toilet, walls, floor. Then drew pictures in it with her fingers. So freaking weird. Ended up cleaning it with a hose, gas mask and buckets of floor cleaner dumped on the floors/walls.
Also had some guys that would jack off in the urinals.
The worst non-bathroom experience was this one customer. Every time was a complete pain in the butt. She came in with her two grandkids one day, ordered two happy meals without specifying who wanted what, and 1 girl toy and 1 boy toy. They got the meals, ate half of it, and then came back and complained I gave the wrong toy to the wrong kid. I picked the toys out of the bag, crossed my hands, and dropped them into the opposite bad and said sweetly ‘There you go ma’am.’ She got so pissed off that she insisted on the store manager being called and complained trying to get me fired.
Two weeks later she came back, ordered a burger from me while insulting me the whole time. Not sure if my grill staff was being supportive, or it was an actual accident, but her bacon strips had chunks of bone in it. she chipped a tooth and threatened to sue me personally…”
54 Hour ‘Hold-In’ Challenge
“When I was a manager at McDonald’s, I always got stuck working 12-hour days on long weekends, because we were located in a tourist town and it was busy as all get out. This particular story takes place on the Victoria Day long weekend (in Canada). I was working 3am-3pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I was running the kitchen during this time. It was about 9am on Saturday and I had to poop, so I asked my assistant in the kitchen to run the show for a few minutes while I go to the bathroom. He jokingly mocked me, saying what a baby I was for taking time out to poop, and made me a bet that I couldn’t hold it in until the end of the day. Challenge accepted. I was so confident that I bet him I could last until the end of my shift on Monday, 54 hours later. He took the bet – $20 says you can’t hold it in for 54 hours. I was on the honor system for the time away from work. Saturday went alright, although there were a few moments when I had to just stand still and concentrate on not pooping myself. Sunday and Monday were much more difficult, and I had the most awful cramps. On Monday afternoon, around 2:30, I started gloating. I was going to make it! But then, the worst possible thing that could happen, happened. My boss, the head restaurant manager, walked over to me and punched me square in the stomach. I shat my pants, right there in the middle of the McDonald’s kitchen. Although I got to leave early, it didn’t make up for the fact that I lost $20. I ended up just throwing the pants out and ordering a new pair the next day.”
“Pause The Security Recordings And Lock The Door”
“I worked at McDonald’s and one time at about 11 pm, there was a big group of 14-18 guys sitting on the front patio, causing trouble and yelling profanities, basically making it a pain for our customers to walk in. One of our regular customers, who could be described as an 40-year-old Aussie Joe Dirt, came through the drive-thru and was furious that he couldn’t walk into the store to sit. He told us to pause the security recordings and to lock the doors. We were thinking WTF when he came to a screeching halt out front, punched the main aggressor right in the face so hard he backflipped out of his chair, then ran back to his car leaving a massive group of angry guys. They saw us laughing and started to retaliate: One tried to throw a chair through the window but it rebounded back into him. After this happened, I heard a guy say, ‘Man that glass is strong.’ We didn’t stop the recording and watched the tape many times over in slow motion.
Another time I was setting up the store for the morning, changing bins in the car park, when I noticed there was a slight chip in the glass ‘fence’ that surrounds the patio. We watched the security tape from the previous night and saw 2 guys pushing 3 shopping carts at running speed, plowing into the glass to no avail.”
“I Just Refused Entrance For Two Guys By Keeping My Pants On”
“I used to work the closing shift at a McDonald’s. Because the restaurant was located across the street from a night club, sometimes I would get drunk and scantily clad customers ordering from the drive-thru window well after the dining room was closed. There was also an incident late at night where a couple of young guys wanted to order more than just a Whopper. ‘Hey,’ one of them asked me and the cashier, ‘How about we pay you two some cash if we could switch our jeans with your pants? The club won’t let us in looking like this.’ ‘No thanks, gentlemen,’ I said. After they left, I laughed, realizing that I just refused entrance for two guys by keeping my pants on.”
“She Was Bawling”
“I often work weekend overnights as a cashier at a McD’s that is surrounded by bars. So, naturally, a lot of the people that I serve are wasted. One time, this one woman comes in.
Drunk: ‘rejerpwrjerejrirjwereChickenaqdjdipjw.’
Me: ‘Did you say McChicken?’
Drunk ‘rjreowYes’
So I put it through and all that stuff. Then I give it to her. She opens the bag, and then I see her face start to scrunch up. This woman, now in tears says: ‘McChicken? I DUNN LIIKE McCHICKEN!!!,’ and by the time she finishes saying this sentence, she’s bawling. (She apparently wanted Nuggets).
Another favorite moment was when I was at the store about 45 minutes before I was scheduled to start. My manager asks ‘Hey, would you mind starting early? The toilet in the women’s bathroom is clogged.’ So, since I’ve nothing better to do, I get to work. Only, by the time I get to the door, I look down to see brown water seeping from underneath the door. ‘NOOOOO!’ Do you have any idea how much water comes out of one of those toilets? A LOT. It took me about half an hour and at least a couple of mop buckets to fully clean that out. A similar incident also happened where someone had pooped on the floor, but it was of that consistency where you just know the person at least tried to make it to the toilet. I can sort of understand this situation. I made sure that there were no other messes and leave. I come back a bit later, and as I pass the bathroom door, I can smell a real strong poop smell. I take another look, and I realize that the guy had stuffed his underwear behind the toilet…”
Asleep At The Wheel
“I worked at McDonald’s for a couple of months in high school. One night some idiot passed out drunk behind the wheel in the drive-thru. I went outside only to discover that it was my dad. The drunk idiot…”
The Uncle Buck Pancake
“I’m working at McDonald’s, and this guy comes and orders pancakes at 10:29 AM. We had just run out of pancake batter, so I have to mix a new batch of batter–there’s no way to do a partial batch. But after the guy gets his two pancakes, I have about 48 pancakes worth of batter that cannot be saved, and it’s 10:30 AM which means it is time to switch to the lunch menu. So I’m shutting down the pancake grill, and even though the managers who are working that day are kind of nazis, I decide ‘what the heck, I’m going to make me a giant Uncle Buck size pancake.’ The batter’s going to be thrown away, the grill is being shut down, so who the really cares. So, I pour the entire batch of batter on the grill.
The pancake is the size of a garbage can lid. It’s cooking, but it’s taking forever–the thing is like an inch thick in the middle. I start to realize that I have no idea to flip the thing, and someone’s going to yell at me for wasting all that time. (‘If you have time to lean, you have time to clean’, etc.) Right then, one of the shift managers comes up, sees the giant pancake, and I know I’m busted. She sternly looks at me and says, ‘I’ll bet you think you’re the first one to ever come up with that idea.’ She smiles, and I suddenly I realize I’m not in trouble. She grabs a bun spatula and somehow manages to flip the entire giant pancake without tearing or ruining it. After it finishes cooking, we put ice cream in a strip down the middle, rolled the thing up, and re-froze it. We poured strawberry syrup over it and cut it into single-serving slices. Dessert for the crew all day long.”
Showing Up Stoned To Work
“I worked at McDonald’s for about 6 months in high school. You know those billboards that change on a timer? Well, when the Arch Deluxe came out, we had an in-store advertising setup was a small display of that type that would rotate to the next image every couple seconds. One afternoon the night manager Rick strolls in, sees this thing, and makes a b-line straight for it. Now understand Rick was a dealer and an addict who always came into work buzzed, tweaked or otherwise stoned. The day manager was in a rush to leave and had called him in early and seeing that he was there, the day manager promptly left. I’m not sure what Rick was on this particular afternoon but he stood looking at this sign for the entire shift without so much as a word spoken. When the manager’s keys were needed for the registers or letting a delivery in the back he would mindlessly hand them over without breaking his stare. Because of management’s obvious substance abuse issues, employees who showed up to work clearly on something were not sent home. Instead, they were simply given the unsavory tasks like cleaning out the bathrooms. On such an occasion when an employee, Adam, showed up high he was told to clean the patio and kid’s play area. He vanished and was all but forgotten about until a couple hours later when a lady came in from the patio area somewhat shaken and said that one of our employees needed some help. Adam was discovered in the kid’s ball pit hanging from the mesh net ceiling screaming his head off about a giant cockroach was that was trying to eat him. Instead of being dismissed or sent home, he was helped down and told to clean up the back and from that day forward he was called the Cockroach Hunter.”
That Would Just Make Too Much Sense
“I wasn’t working there, but I was in a McDonal’s once and witnessed a (possibly drunk) man order ’40 cheeseburgers with no cheese,’ which led to a ten minute long argument with the cashier about why just getting 40 hamburgers wasn’t an option. This caused the cashier to get really angry and flip out at the rest of the staff, who were presumably not making 40 cheeseburgers with no cheese fast enough.”
Playing The Game
“My friend’s brother has this friend who will go to the local Mcdonald’s restaurant; It’s 24 hours and in a college town, so at 3am the floor has empty coke cups and wrappers all over it.
Every single time this guy comes in, he picks up a large coke cup and puts a new straw in it. The store is packed so none of the team members care about anything but getting customers away from the counter by throwing food at them. The guy ‘sips’ from his empty coke cup right beside the counter until someone asks him ‘You alright, mate?.’ Then he’ll say ‘Yeah I’m cool, just waiting on my large big mac meal,’ after which the team member will apologize furiously and say ‘Sure, it’ll be just a second!’
Free meal, every time.”
