Grandmother Arrested At McDonald's For Refusing To Pull Car Forward
75-year-old Jean Merola was arrested by Clearwater, Florida police after refusing to pull her car forward at a McDonald's drive-thru, despite being ordered to do so by a police officer. She had ordered decaf coffee and "salt-free" french fries and was waiting for them.
Merola said the McDonald's employees told her to wait there for her food. Merola was handcuffed behind her back and put in the cruiser. Another officer arrived and took her to the Pinellas County Jail .Merola says she was arrested after she refused to present identification and "cursed" at the officer when he radioed in to say she should be "taken to a mental hospital." The officer's supervisor later apologized.Merola said she was searched, photographed and fingerprinted. Jail records show she was released about 90 minutes later on her own recognizance.
Imagine waiting until 75 to start your life of crime. What a procrastinator.
Grandmother Arrested At McDonald's Drive-Thru For Not Pulling Car Forward [Local 6 via BoingBoing] (Thanks, Everyone!)
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Comments:
they sure weren't assault free...
I'm sorry
???? That doesn't make any sense!
So, no word on WHY she was asked by an officer to pull forward, or why an officer was at McDonald's barking orders in the first place?
Exactly the reason why TV Media is useless and untrustworthy.
I'm guessing the cop didn't want to wait an extra 5 minutes in line for her special order so hit the PA telling her to move along.
Cops get away with quite a bit at fst food joints too, usually getting comp'd food and if they get to be dicks about it nobody complains cause they don't want to be the one getting the "late response" when they're being held up.
The article lacks enough facts to form an "Accurate" opinion, but on its face, it seems to be a clear abuse of power on the part of the police. First thing that pops into my mind was "sure they arrested her, she was trespassing after she had been asked to leave". However, there is no evidence that anyone other than the cops told her to move. Next, the McDonalds is presumably on private property. I'm not sure the cops have any authority to tell her to move her car in that case. The only thing that conceivably justified arrest was her refusal to show identification. While most states don't require you to present actual ID on request (just verbally stating your name and address is enough),the fact she was driving a car changes the scenario entirely. She was legally obligated to present ID on demand in that situation. Unfortunately, it seems that if it weren't for some overzealous cop the situation would have never escalated to that point.
"Salt-Free" McDonald's Fries? Does such a think even exist?
Yeah if you watch the video they actually state it's because she was parked at the curb in the parking lot. But again private property /= public street.
Not even sure what business the officer had in aproaching the car of someone waiting for food on private property...
I get asked to pull forward all the time, I'll start telling them no I don't wanna get arrested like the old lady in florida.
Clearwater, Florida = Scientology-ville.
No, seriously, look it up.
...now, how that's relevant to this story, I have no idea.
When I used to work at a fast-food-type joint, some (rude) customers would try to order additional food at the pick-up window, which of course holds up everybody behind them. So if we were particularly busy, we might ask them to pull forward into the parking lot so we could keep the line moving while their additional food cooked.
Some of assholes would actually refuse to your face and just sit there and hold up the drive-through while their extra food cooked, despite the fact it was their indecisiveness that caused the problem in the first place.
Even so, we'd never call the cops on such a person. Just grit the teeth and roll the eyes.
@PSN: kingpsyz: I used to work at a Tim Horton's in Northern Ontario. If any officers came in, we'd give them free coffee and a donut/muffin/equivalent if they were staying in. That was just a rule, for some reason. Bus drivers (for Greyhound and the like) got free coffee, probably for the extra business they brought in. Don't know why, seems unfair if you ask me.
Speaking of procrastinators, this story is like 4 or 5 days old.
And to think I just voted for The Consumerist for all 3 Bloggies.
I hope it wasn't a full body cavity search. Yuck I'm getting a bad visual.
What an old hag. Someone who suffers from common sense AND memory lapse while driving should never be allowed to drive. Thank God I dont live in Florida to deal with these old fogies.
Remember the Wendy's commercials?
"Park it and WAIT".
The same thing happened to me.
I had already waited 10 minutes. They gave me part of my order but the nuggets weren't done yet! I didn't want HOT nuggets and COLD fries so I told them to either give me the rest of my food or give me my money back. They called the police and said I threatened them and threw my food at them through the window. The police were going to arrest me until I told them to ask the manager to see the video from the camera in the drive-thru.
Real article with details: [www.msnbc.msn.com]
Basically the dumb cop got his car stuck behind hers and instead of waiting he decided to abuse his badge and try to force her to move.
Lesson learned: Don't ever separate a cop from his junk food.
McBusted
What was that cop doing at McDonalds? Do they serve donuts now?
So what exactly is this a consumer issue?
The police report says the manager asked her to pull all the way up, and she didn't...I think the old lady has issues...but I'm sure officer McDonut was as charming as any other police officer on the usual power trip.
I'm calling this one a stalemate. I think the two cancel each other out.
Wait, this could be the idea for a great new sitcom!
@PSN: kingpsyz: Even on (semi/open to the public) private property, cops can direct traffic for 1) safety, 2) handicap parking violations and 3) Fire violations. (fire lane)
That being said, they couldn't give you a ticket for parking across three parking spots (when I say couldn't, I mean it would get thrown out in court later)
From what i read about this days ago & saw on the news.... the cop said she wasnt pulled up far enough for him to pass (or some such nonsense) & after confronting her he had some thoughts about the possibility of her being senile.
When you really want to get down to it.... it is just another case of "respect my authority or you are going to pay" attitude that cops often have. She dared not uttery cooperate with the cop to his satisfaction so he was going to punish her to teach her a lesson. Cops do this alllllllll the time. Too bad cop's cant actually use their brains instead of their egos to solve a problem.
If I were a cop & some old granny told me to go fuck myself, I'd probably let it slide & not go actively looking for a reason to arrest & punish her.
You know... if you interacted with a cop long enough.... he could probably find a reason to arrest you IF he wanted to. That's why its best to have as little interactions with cops as possible. Rarely anything good comes from it.
OMG When I read the police report I almost fell out from laughing. God bless this old gal.
Um, I think some of the facts have been left out of this story. You guys at consumerist.com need to be a little more attentive. I read these incomplete stories from time to time here.
Lawsuit for emotional distress, pitch a fit until the officer is put up for review. The officer will be absolved of any wrongdoing, but he'll have at least a day of administrative leave, and the smudge of the inquiry on his record.
31 posts, and I'm the first to suggest a golden opportunity for frivolous litigation? What has The Consumerist come to?
That said, I'm off to read the article :)
I'm split. On the one hand I hate cops, on the other I hate senior citizen drivers. But after reading this article, I have 0 sympathy for the old bag.
"Oh my goodness, here I am, a poor little innocent woman waiting for my French fries."
...
After refusing, Merola yelled at Parco for about 20 minutes, calling him a "brat,'' a "smart a--,'' and a "dumb----"
Innocent my a--.
@chouchou: Seriously, the Fries are Drenched in the McCrack they call "Fry Salt." It's what made them so good.
@EtherealStrife: If you read the police report [www.sptimes.com] you will see she did not yell at him for 20 minutes (by the officer's account) you will also see the officer trying to paint himself as a victim. (bullshit)
The cop starts by blowing his horn at a lady that is parked in an area that the cashier told her to wait. He then yelled at her to mover her car. (The police report says he asked nicely, but please tell me how you can ask nicely when you are sitting in your car yelling to be heard over your running engine and hers?)
I am not going to go over the whole police report. Turn on your bullshit detector and read it for yourself. You will see the officer escalated this due to his "I'm the law" attitude. The old gal called him on it. That is why she went to jail.
A smart officer would have told her she needed to pull forward and would have directed her so she would not bump the curb. Then again a smart officer would not have been trapped behind a vehicle at the drive thru.
she is lucky she wasn't tasered.
This is one of those cases where too much media is a bad thing. The Consumerist is sometimes the National Enquirer of consumerism...
I am so glad that so many of us here know what happened despite the story and the police report.
I think we should all volunteer for jury duty everywhere, we could do away with the whole trial bullshit and move right to sentencing.
Say it with me, there are good cops and bad cops. Cops are people too. Except the power hungry little @#%!! who pull me over :)
Seriously, most cops are pretty decent, but you hardly ever read about when a cop does what we expect them to. I have personally seen police take a lot of shit from someone to avoid escalating a situation, so just like people, you can't generalize them as all bad (or all good).
Holy @#$!!, I'm sticking up for the man!
I don't blame her for ordering McD fries without salt. My God! Even when you order them without salt there is enough residue on the fry scoop to tan your tongue. I get the idea that they are just trying to get you to buy more soda. But for christ sake the amount of salt is ridiculous!
Just goes to show you crazy assholes come in every age and every color of dress - including blue! Old crazy bitch VS my daddy humiliated me so I'm gonna get me a uniform so I can take it out on every person I can goad into a fight!
Or in this case maybe it was mommy.
This entire incident happened because this moron police officer didn't remember to leave an escape route for him to pull out of a line of traffic?
That being said, the old lady definitely needs some psychiatric help. Too bad she's only getting a bunch of crybaby recognition from teh interwebs.
She was driving a Lincoln Town Car aka land yacht. My guess is, she didn't pull forward far enough so that the next car in line could maneuver around her from its position at the pick up window.
I'm calling bullshit that she couldn't move forward because there was a curb in front of her. If you look at the satellite view of the McDonald's on google maps, there are no obstructions in the path of the drive through.
I'm going to try to link directly to the google maps page, the address of the McDonald's is 1934 N. HERCULES AVE, clearwater, fl, if that doesn't work.
my favorite line is how they worked in "Grandmother of eight..." wow, if she only had seven grandchildren she'd be a failure as a person, but since her children reproduced eight times with their chosen partners, she should be nominated for a Nobel Prize!
Kids are great, I only hate children on a case by case basis, I just hate it when the media HAS to mention how PRODIGIOUS the family line is!
The odds may be against it, but white trash can live to be old too...
@JGB:
Please stop spewing such racist remarks. If you used the N word or other racial slur, you'd be banned.
On the police report, the cop said he pleaded with her for over 20 minutes to move her car.
So over 20 minutes had passed and she still hadn't recieved her order??
It seems obvious that if they'd given her the order, she would have taken it and left.
She really needs to work out some engrams.
She wanted SALT FREE FRIES ?!! At MC DONALDS ?!!!! I'll bet that she swims in the unchlorinated end of the pool at the Senility Hilton...
Actually, there has to be some sort of reasonable suspicion to stop someone and then ask for ID. If there was none, then the request for ID was invalid.
For example, if a cop catches you speeding, he can ask for your ID and such because he believes you broke a law. However, refusing to let a cop get ahead of you in line so he can get his McHeartattack is not something the cop can use to ID you with.
Assuming there is nothing more to this story, the cop might find himself on the bad end of a lawsuit and internal affairs investigation.
@DMDDallas:
Not entirely true. While a normal
"Terry Stop" does require some suspicion, that pretty much goes out the window if you are operating a motor vehicle. You are required, on demand, to produce an operators license in that case. No reasonable suspicion required. Furthering my point, she wasn't even "pulled over" or "stopped". He just approached her already stationary car.
So, were the fries "salt-free" or salt-free.