A free meal to make her feel better about the charges against her, now that's taking it seriously.

...just.loss of words...wow just wow

Now that's good PR...dipped in sweet n' sour.

If this statement acknowledges how the lying employee escalated things to the point of ridiculousness, how about paying for her attorney for the charges being brought against her for misuse of 911?

I just found out that 85% of McDonalds stores are franchises. So you get a big YMMV depending on teh store you visit. I was at the store in Arlington, Texas over by 6 Flags two days ago and one of the employees was setting off their car alarm, remote starting their truck, and having the horn honk while I was in the parking lot talking to a friend. When I went inside, 5 employees plus the manager were giggling at me. You could see one of the employees had been pushing the bottons on her keychain. The manager was a smartass and said "that alarm goes off whenever you get near that truck." Alarm maybe, but not remote start and horn honking. I was harassed by the employees and the manager before I even set foot in the store! Do you really think I was going to trust them to make my food? We went somewhere else and ate.

So I contacted Mickey Ds corporate and they said they would have the store owner call me, but I haven't heard back. These franchise stores suck!

Why should mickey d's pay for the actions of their irresponsible customer? Sure, she was upset about not receiving what she paid for, I would be too, but there is NO excuse for abusing emergency lines to whine about not receiving nugget shaped chicken patties.

Maybe she should be responsible for any lives lost or property damage that could have been prevented by the 911 operator whose time she was wasting.

What's an Arch card? I already have shoe inserts for my plantar faciitis if that's what it is.

Maybe the 911 call was preventative to her impending heart attack that she would get from the nuggets.

Hope she doesn't choke on that complimentary lunch.

What's with the hatin' on Mac's Steakhouse? They ran out of Nuggets, offered her a higher priced meal and she had a flip out. Just because the minimum wage drone didn't handle the psycho well doesn't mean they are horrible. She was the problem with her obvious mental issues. Flipping out over not getting your nuggets is a reason to see a shrink.

@SGAC: Because that would cost more than $5 retail, $.05 wholesale.

@stanner: [www.mcdonalds.com]
Reusable giftcard. Name comes from the "golden arches."

they should do what they can to get her out of jail...and then pay for her anger management classes and other related therapies.

@billbobbins: There are some fights not even worth fighting. Fighting with idiots like these is one.

Sorry man.

I wager that this woman will retain the services of a lawyer and spin it into a racism issue.

"If the sweet n sour don't fit, you must acquit!"

I say $500 fine for abusing 911 and then a free meal and refund. The fact that she is an idiot for calling 911 should get here alot of embarassment too!

@dohtem: Ah, sort of a credit card of cholesterol.

"Now she can enjoy a complimentary lunch on the day she goes to plead "no contest" to the judge for abuse of 911."

Hey man, there's a beverage here! My poor keyboard.

It's not McD's fault that she decided to call 911, right?

Good on them for coming through with the refund and "compensation."

At one of my previous jobs, I had a guy walk in off the street and ask for a phone, he immediately dialed 911, and the cops came out to chat with him, no problem. They were apparently old buddies, of the trouble-causing variety. I had to press the officer in charge a few times so I could fill out my company's incident paperwork... they just... had a chat, and went on their merry way...

@blazinrebel: I can't speak for McDonald's, but their actions seem as if they're intended for a headline that many see and, I think, for them to hand out a free meal and a refund (which probably doesn't cost them much in the long run) was more of a gesture to the rest of the public (like us) than it was for her. We're supposed to look at this and think "Wow, McDonald's was quick to respond and help! They're a great company and I feel safe eating there tonight!"

I don't see it as "She justly deserves it," I see it more as "Hey! Let's buy some quick good PR."

Hah 1 free meal. I got something similar when I contacted them about a store in my area charging for mcnugget sauce. They charged 20 cents a piece with no signage and gave you none with your mcnugget purchase. They changed that after i called and now they have something that looks like they printed it them selves telling you how many sauces come with the meal and how much extras cost.

She's an idiot wasting the cops time with a petty dispute that could have been easily fixed by calling McDonald's corporate and making a complaint.

Let her face the consequences! I don't call 911 every time AT&T overcharges me! The overcharges are at least $50 and I have to spend 2+ hours on the phone getting passed around from rep to rep.

@SGAC: Shocking as it may seem, at the end of the day you are still responsible for your own actions.

@billbobbins: You should have gone into the bathroom and peed on the walls.

I hope the free coupon isn't for a McDouble and Fries.

@blazinrebel: Technically, they're giving her a refund for her food she didn't get plus a token gift card. I think that's fair-they're not (and shouldn't) be held responsible for her overreaction.

I wouldn't call 911, but I would call the police non-emergency number, just to make a point. I'm a dick like that. But, really, given that they charged her then refused a refund, that's theft. The only reason I'd not call 911 is because I'm fairly intelligent; I couldn't blame a stupid person who's been robbed from calling 911.

@fatcop: McDonalds was defrauding her out of her money...is it really that heinous an abuse of 911 to report someone who is stealing from you?

@dddoistutter: Just to clarify, by the way, I wouldn't have called 911...I'm just saying, the police are here to "serve and protect", not "only here to respond to life-threatening emergencies". It would have done that woman a service to tell McDonalds to give that woman her damned money back.

Could you imagine if she paid by credit. Calling the company and seeing about a charge back and explaining the situation lol.

@dddoistutter: That's correct that the police are not only there to respond to life-threatening emergencies, but 911 itself generally is. In non-emergency situations, in most localities you are expected to call a regular non-emergency police number.

@billbobbins: That's why they invented vandalism. I wonder if they'd still be laughing if they came out at the end of their shift to find their truck sitting on four flats?

@SGAC: Um. "I'm not a domestic abuser, she just wouldn't shut up!"

YOU are responsible for your own actions.

@Maurs: completely o/t, but i tried that once (i slid into a signpost on an icy road & wanted to report the damage) & i was told to call 911. i didn't feel it was appropriate, so i took pictures & traveled to the police station to file a report in person.

another time, i was on the highway (i684) in westchester county & saw a stray dog wandering along the inside median. i called 911 to report that (i happen to think animals trotting alongside traffic that's whizzing by at 85mph is potentially dangerous) & was berated by the dispatcher. i believe "this is emergency response, not animal control" were her exact words.

not condoning this particular behavior & agree with your advice, i just felt like sharing. :/

@Cat_In_A_Hat: Sweet n sour is 50 cents per container, limit 2 per person.

@IT-Chick: Hey, it ain't their fault she was stupid. They owned up for their mistakes, she is being punished for hers.

@Coles_Law:

Just to play devil's advocate, at what dollar amount does petty larceny become a matter to bring the police in on?

After all, what happened here is that McDonalds took her money after promising to give her an item in exchange for it, and then refused to give her the item, or her money back. That's theft, folks.

(No, I'm not saying I'm gonna call 911 over a dollar, but perhaps what she really meant to say in the 911 call is not so much "they're out of mcnuggets," as "they stole my money.")

@The_IT_Crone: last time i called non emergency, i was told that if i needed to call back with an update on the suspicious people casing houses in my neighborhood to call back to 911 so the dispatcher could tell the cops who were en route ... when i called back with the car's license plate #... the same guy answered the phone as when i called police non emergency.
yes, it's a state capitol - kind of a decent sized city.
but i'd still call non emergency for the next non life threatening thing though. i'd rather have the dispatcher decide how to allocate the city's resources

Why should they apologize? This is merely setting a precedent.

@catastrophegirl: my kingdom for an edit button! that was supposed to be @Maurs

@mac-phisto: This past weekend my girlfriend called 911 to report a stray dog on the highway as well. The responder was helpful, but it may have been because she worded the call in such a way as to express concern for the wellbeing of drivers on the highway and the fact that the dog could have caused an accident.

She did attempt to contact the local authorities first but the animal control office wasn't picking up the phone at 3:30 in the morning.

Sounds like you may have accidentally woken the responder up on the wrong side of the headset. (::Thinks back to the 911 call where snoring was recored on the responders end::)

@Ghede:

Perhaps, but if you look at it another way, if they didn't do what they did, her actions would have occurred. Some people get irrational when being screwed over, sometimes not thinking properly.

McDonalds has historically kept a very, very tight rein on their franchises. I don't know about today, but when I was growing up (70s) I knew some managers and franchise owners, and quality, cleanliness, and customer service were absolutely top priority, to the point where McDonalds used to actively terminate noncompliant franchises, even for seemingly minor things that didn't conform with a good customer experience.

Perhaps that's all changed now that Ray Kroc isn't around any more, but you'd think they would see the value in enforcing consistency in the quality of customer experiences.

So why isn't this McDonald's franchises actions considered theft? I may disagree with the use of 911 emergency, however utilizing the non-emergency number of 911 would be proper. I don't see any reason to take it in the ass and then write a letter to McDonalds corporate. They stole her money and the police should have been involved in some fashion.

@ShadowFalls: Stupid people do stuipd things. A stupid altercation with a McDonald's employee is no reason to call 911. Your point of view seems to say that she's not responsible for her actions. People need to grow uup and have some damned personal responsibility.

@RedSonSuperDave: Agreed. I know it's not right or mature, but I totally agree.

@SGAC: Thing is, that argument completely falls apart when you read the article and discover that she called 911 not once, but *three* freaking times. I might have been inclined to go along with once- I think it's overkill, and a letter to the BBB and/or an executive level e-mail probably would have made more sense, but if you want to argue the, "OMG, she was the victim of theft!" angle, okay. But when she kept calling and calling, *that* escalated it to abuse of the 911 system.

She called once, was told that a cop was on the way, and continued to call. Twice. Sorry, but that's not a rational response to a cashier not giving you a refund, that's just crazy and a one-way ticket to court. However much you hate McDonald's, they shouldn't be expected to cover any lawyers' fees that have come about as a result of her idiocy. Anyone who thinks that not getting the money back for your McNuggets warrants *three* 911 calls is way off base. This is a case where it's appropriate for her to assume the burdens that come with responsibility for one's actions.

@shadowkahn: Except, as I mentioned above, she didn't "just call 911." She called them three freaking times. Once she called and was told that a cop was on the way, she should have put the phone down and waited until they got there to get things resolved. That's where she went from an arguably reasonable reaction to the store refusing to refund her money to abuse of the emergency lines.

@MisterE87: Don't forget that it's *also* McDonalds fault that people get fat from eating their food. How can we mortals help it if McDonalds burgers are just so tasty?

We should probably just go ahead and blame McDonalds for everything bad that happens and get it out of the way, so we can move on to our next great project as a species: blaming Burger King for everything bad that happens.

Now if they sent her the Hamburgler to represent her in court, THAT would be something to write about. You know he got a law degree when he was locked up that last stretch.