That cop is a dick. Not often I promote lawsuits but this seems like a good case for one.

Sweet. Crime lab analysis. It's great to know that the lab has enough free time and excess tax dollars to figure out what of the overly salty burger gave a cop a tummy ache.

It was an adulterated. Once it was messed up, it shouldn't have been served to the public. She made a criminal mistake. She should have been arrested. If a manager actually know about the meat being served, she should have been arrested as well. This is NOT a case of Dept. Fife going crazy.

"ONOES, EVERYONE'S OUT TO GET YOU!"

Seriously, get over yourself.

Oh for the love of baby Jesus, this is ridiculous. This cop obviously has an inferiority complex, otherwise he wouldn't be getting all inflammatory at a friggin' McDonalds worker. Someone's on a power trip!

"Wendall, it was salt."

Can you prove that? I'm assuming that the cop must have had a good reason to suspect otherwise, since if it comes back that it WAS just a little salt, his superiors are going to be pissed about the expense of the lab tests.

"According to Kendra, she accidentally spilled too much salt on the hamburger meat, tried to remove it, notified her coworkers, then took a break. During the break she says she ate a burger made from the salty meat."

Huh? I worked the grill at McDonald's in high school. You "season" ONE patty at a time with the "season" shaker. There's NO WAY to "oversalt" an entire batch. MAYBE you could over do it on two or 3 patties, but that would be the max. Then you scoop those 2 or 3 off and throw them away, period.

I'm MUCH more likely to believe that the drive through person clicked "intercom" on the headset and said "Yo, Kendra, that Big N Tasty needs the cop special!" and Kendra laughed and gave it the special treatment. Sure as HELL she didn't make herself a burger from that batch, unless it was one of the patties she didn't "over salt".

Hmm, the cop gets sick from too much salt. He tastes that it is salty, but apparently doesn't ask for a new burger, then gets sick.

I wonder what medical condition he's trying to cover up. Or is it what I've long suspected about people, in general, in law enforcement: weak individuals who need the badge to affirm their self-worth, i.e. bullies.

Let the flaming begin.

@dbeahn: Actually, according to one news story, she did.

McDonalds makes their burgers from scratch? I always thought they would come from some sort of factory pre-shaped and frozen, and they just cook them up on-site. I'm reasonably sure most of their other food is prepared this way (i.e. open a big bag of fries, dump into vat of oil - they don't actually cut potatoes and stuff there)

Sue McDonalds, make them go bankrupt!!! Then everyone will have to eat healthy just like Ben!

Sorry I used to live in Union City GA and ummm the kind of people thee are the kind you don't turn your back on, unless you want to find a foot up your butt or a knife in your back. FFS my wife was threatened to be shot on the front porch of our townhouse there.

I would not be surprised to see someone tamper with a cops food there. With the sheer number of stories over the last few months of drive through workers tampering with cop food I say throw the book at her. IF you can prove intent, but only then.

I'm willing to accept that fast food employees are not above, in the words of Eminem, "spittin' on your onion rings." But to actually get sick from eating a burger? Most readily accessible grossness (i.e., body fluid) is not likely to get you sick. Sure, it's possible that the "cop special" is actually a liberal marinade of motor oil or formaldehyde, but I suspect that anything you would get sick from would be in the category of "wow, this burger looks/smells/tastes incredibly funky -- I am NOT eating this." Unless the guy's allergic to salt I'm skeptical about his claims of being laid low by the tainted meat. Guess we'll have to wait for the crime lab analysis.

See? This is what gets me about cops. They have the ability to send a hamburger to a state crime lab to test for other "seasonings"?

I DO feel sorry for cops when they have to eat out somewhere..... you'd think they WOULD be paranoid about getting unrequested "special sauce" on their food. But going overboard like what this cop did is uncalled for.

This also backs up my claim that any cop can "find" something to charge you with if he wants to. There are so many laws on the books that it is almost impossible to walk out the door & go about your everyday business without technically breaking a law. Sad really.

And why is it when a cop brings questionable charges against someone ... they are ALWAYS backed up by fellow officers & county prosecutors? While rarely citizens rarely have that kind of support.

Long time ago (in a town far, far away) I worked for McDonald's, we use to season our patties when they were on the grill (in a grid of 4x4) before we brought down the top grill part. I could see how a large batch could be over seasoned. I have a feeling there is a lot on both sides not being told though.

We never did one at a time though, how terribly inefficient.

I just called the Chief of Police in Union City Georgia Chief ODOM at 770-306-6849 Ext: 326, I urge others to call and express there comments on the abuse of Power that this individual and her department excercised in this incident. A through investigation should be made by the Georgia Department of Law Enforcement if the chief does not act quickly to resolve this.

Call Chief ODOM at 770-306-6849 Ext: 326

Yeah with all the child molesters and serial killers out there I'm glad the justice system can afford to go hard on a minimum wage McDonalds employee. I agree she should have just tossed the burgers. I'm pretty sure that's the rule and she was wrong not to do so.I mean I've had them throw out paper cups that tipped over empty and the rim touched the counter.
Is the cop sure it wasn't just the McDonald's food that made him sick? Happens to me all the time.

Yeah, this is a classic case of an inferiority complex, mingled with intense paranoia for the cosmic recompense that will inevitably be doled out on this officer for being such a power-wielding douchecannon.

I know that there are places out there that will give cops the raw deal, mostly because of the bad name that they tend to make for themselves, especially when it comes to young people in minimum wage positions.

Lets hope this officer gets humiliated like he deserves.

It's a crap shoot, deciding how much to really tell a cop.

@Major-General: No, according to *her statement* she did.

So why is it when the cop says there was something other than salt on the burger HE must obviously be lying, in spite of getting approval to have it sent off for testing.

But you'll believe a 20 year old McDonald's employee because....I'm sorry, why? If she DID do something to his burger, you really expect that she'd say "Oh yeah - I sprayed windex on it and spit on it! Funny stuff, cause he's a COP! I had me a burger outta that batch too, but mine didn't have spit and windex on it..."???

to echo a bit..

the fatass cop was wolfing down his nasty-ass burger too fast to even notice something was wrong with it before he had had enough to get him sick? most people would've taken one bite, and taken the burger back for a new one.. just another case of a scumbag cop wanting to show everyone how big his 3 inch dick is..

damn i hate cops so damned much

Talk about an abuse of power situation.

I think Morgan Spurlock proved that eating fast food, regardless of its preparation, can make you extremely sick. You order FF, you take your chances.

That poor girl, who the hell goes to jail for spilling salt anyway?

@cabedrgn: "We never did one at a time though, how terribly inefficient."

Technically, it was "one shake per patty". In practice it was a bit more fast and loose. Still, you have to drop the top off the thing to "over season" enough that you need to "try to remove the excess salt". And you don't "try to remove" it, you just scoop up the ruined few and pitch them.

She was arrested for aSalting the officer :P

But in all seriousness, I see a lawsuit in this cop's future.

@kidwei: You know, with all the hatred being expressed for cops in this thread, it's amazing that people actually WANT to believe the 20 year old. How hysterical that there are so many people expressing such hate that I don't doubt for a minute they'd put something in a cop's food if they had the chance.

that'll teach 'em to stray from Dunkin Donuts

How is serving an over salted burger a crime? Sure bad customer service, but not a crime.

He had a power trip and the police department should be sued because of it...

This is why some cops have a bad name, because some are just assholes.

As far as stepping outside, I would have referred to the manager and kept on working. Would you step outside with a customer if it wasn't a cop?

Get a lawyer and let him have it!

You know, if the cop would have fired up a massive spliff before chowing his burger, there'd be no problem...

@dbeahn: And what was your last personal encounter with a police officer in an official capacity that made you say "Gosh, I'm glad I encountered a peace officer today?" Most people (outside older, not-poor white folks) don't have encounters of that type on a regular basis. Unlike firemen, when you see a cop running toward you, your first thought is often something other than "Oh, hooray, I am saved!" Just sayin.

@dbeahn: Having a general disgust for the tendency of cops to abuse their power for no good reason other than insecurity and an inferiority complex does not make the 'haters' on this thread willing to poison cops. In an ideal world, police officers are supposed to be public servants and peacekeepers. But my experience with cops has more often than not been closer to the one in this story. Everyone has their reasons.. I have mine. But that doesnt' mean i'm going to go and poison somebody. But that doesn't mean I have to like them, either.

@dbeahn:
You know I used to think like you, did but thanks to the likes of Youtube [video.google.com] I'm beginning to believe that the nation's police departments have systemic problems. Bullies embolded by the dubious powers granted them by the Patriot Act seem to increasingly be running the show.

@SOhp101: My thoughts exactly. Had this girl been smart enough, she would not have said a word to the officer. She's under no obligation to help him, especially when it's clear he's looking at it being her fault. Too many people are willing to spill their guts to a guy just because he has a badge. This is why I think high schools need to offer a class in basic constitutional law and what your rights are. It's like the people that are willing to let a cop search their car because "they have nothing to hide", or they don't know the law and think if they say no he's going to search it anyway. Our education system should be addressing these issues.

@mbrutsch:
@philipbarrett:
Thank you. Exactly what I was thinking. I am a in a minority ethnic group in the states, and I have in more than one occasion been hassled and harassed by a cop for no good reason other than an abuse of power and blatant discrimination. Those who haven't been in such shoes shouldn't speak so condemningly.

If this is an arrestable offense, then why don't the people who serve my bf cheese on his "plain, nothing on it please" burgers get hauled off to the slammer?

While this cop went overboard, and shouldn't have arrested her, maybe it will serve as a lesson that it's NOT acceptable to serve unasked-for "trimmings" on peoples' food.

What I want to know is how much salt would you have to put on a hamburger for someone to notice. I mean those things are pretty high in sodium anyway I and would assume that you would have to dump the entire shaker of salt on the thing for similar results.

Just shut up and dip your fries in the burger juices. I hear that is what their secret ingredient for fries used to be.

@Buran: So you're all for criminalizing screwing up a persons order? This reminds me of the recording of the woman calling the police while in the drive-thru because the woman would not make her Rodeo Burger. [www.snopes.com]

@bradg33: I think you need to read Buran's post more carefully. Then maybe look up sarcasm in the dictionary.

Generally, I tend to have favorable views of the cops (yes, I had my fair share of getting close to the edge with them too), but I think it's fair game for Kendra to sue under false imprisonment.

I wish I could harass everyone who screwed up my fast food order.

How does the officer know that Kendra was the one who did something, other than oversalting, to the burger? She wasn't the one who served it. Someone else could have added something to the burger that made the cop sick.

Even if the burger had something else wrong with it I don't see how he can assume it was her fault.

That cop could be staring at a civil rights lawsuit in the near future, especially after this woman's attorney does a FOIL request for his disciplinary record.

I wonder what the police or county prosecutor would do if I came to them wanting to press charges because I THOUGHT that some burger-jerk oversalted (or put something nasty) on my burger. I'd be willing to bet that they'd laff at me or be pissed that I even brought it to their attention & wasted their time. It would go NOWHERE! WHile a cop is supported in the most weak of charges he wants to file against someone else (like the georgia cop who filed stalking charges against a couple who set up a speed-detecting device on their property to document speeders zooming thru their neighborhood & happen to catch a cop speeding & reported it to his superiors).

I'm more concerned with the fact that the cop was eating at McDonalds to begin with. Doesn't bode well for a profession where the employees are supposed to be in shape.

Perhaps the McDonalds worker should of just ran away on foot, the cop probably wouldnt of been able to catch him.

You guuuuuuuuuuuuuys! Stop blaming the viiiiiiiiiiiiictim.

Funny how that works.

@kidwei: I was referring to "maybe it will serve as a lesson that it's NOT acceptable to serve unasked-for "trimmings" on peoples' food." Pretty well indicates that it might be a good idea to do this, it'll teach them a lesson.

This idiot cop's probable history of asshole behaviour is likely what led to him getting the "cop special" in the first place. The kids working at mcdicks were probably harrassed by him at some point for smoking a doobie or loitering.

Cops are basically bipolar primadonnas.

@bradg33: Uh. No, that's not what I said. Where did I say it was a good idea? I specifically said that the guy went overboard.

My point is, it's not a good idea to serve things people specifically said they didn't want.

"Hey, if someone got arrested for this, even if it was an instance of an overboard reaction to a mistake, maybe I should be more careful".

Sigh. If you disagree with someone, that doesn't mean that they support stupidity.

Wouldn't a solution to all the recent stories on adulterated fast food be to train video cameras on the food prep staff (just like the cameras likely already focused on the cashiers)? If there's a dispute, look at the tape.

I suspect, though, that many people would curtail their fast food consumption if they saw the videos (which would definitely make it on YouTube)...

@dbeahn: That's because most of us have had dealings with cops. I swear, you should have seen the way this one a couple of months ago treated my mother... if he didn't have a gun, I would have punched him in the face on general principle.

Farva: Give me a double bacon cheeseburger.
Dimpus Burger Guy: [into mic] Double baco cheeseburger. It's for a cop.
Farva: What the hell's that all about? You gonna spit in it now?
Dimpus Burger Guy: No, I just told him that so he makes it good.
[into mic]
Dimpus Burger Guy: Don't spit in that cop's burger.
Farva: Yeah, thanks.
Second Dimpus Guy: Roger, holding the spit.
Farva: Gimme a pie... apple.
Dimpus Burger Guy: Want me to hold the spit? Hah, just kidding officer Farva.