Within only a couple of hours of our posting some gross-out videos of bad Domino’s employees last night, our readers Amy Wilson and whyerhead managed to track down the location, call the store directly to alert the manager, and send the address to Domino’s corporate. The only two clues they had were the YouTube handle of the uploader and a quick glimpse of the surrounding area as viewed through the drive-through window in one of the clips.

A week ago, the New York Times reported on just this kind of online sleuthing, and how people working together via the Internet can accomplish some pretty amazing detective work. In that article, it was to track down and return a lost camera. Here, Amy Wilson and whyerhead were able to actually take action against the bad employees in the videos by alerting their superiors and Domino’s corporate. Congratulations on some pretty amazing detective work for the greater good!

Update: Another reader, Jonathan Drake, emailed Domino’s VP of Communications Tim McIntyre last night to point him to the post. McIntire and Drake exchanged a few emails, including a copy of an apology from Kristy.

From: “Tim McIntyre (COMM – Communicat)”
Subject: RE: Video Location identified!
Date: April 14, 2009 6:45:40 AM EDT
To: Jonathan Drake

Subject: RE: Video Location identified!

Jonathan,

Thanks so much for pointing us to the comments in the blog. I alerted our security team as soon as I received it last night.

At 1:38 a.m. today, this email arrived in my inbox:

—
The gross videos
Kristy Kristy
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 1:38 AM
To: Tim McIntyre (COMM – Communicat)

I am sorry about all of this! It was all a prank and me nor Michael expected to have this much attention from the videos that were uploaded! No food was ever sent out to any customer. We would never put something like that on you tube if it were real!! It was fake and I wish that everyone knew that!!!! Michael never would do that to any customer, EVER!! I AM SOO SORRY! You see all the time of the pranks that people upload and the pranks need to seem real in order to get a laugh out of people but this prank was very very immature and I am sorry for the embarrasment that I have caused your company!
—

At this point, we certainly are not taking her at her word that this was all fake, but we will be following up today with these people who are employed by an independent, and innocent, franchise owner.

Tim McIntyre
Vice President, Communications
Domino’s Pizza LLC

From: “Tim McIntyre (COMM – Communicat)”
Date: April 14, 2009 9:20:54 AM EDT
To: Jonathan Drake
Subject: RE: Video Location identified!

Jonathan,

To say that the Consumerist is “relatively popular” is a bit of an understatement. Thank you for your understanding. Our chief of security has spoken to the franchise owner this morning, who was dumbfounded, to say the least. He has told us that he will be terminating their employment today. The “challenge” that comes with the freedom of the internet is that any idiot with a camera and an internet link can do stuff like this – and ruin the reputation of a brand that’s nearly 50 years old, and the reputations of 125,000 hard-working men and women across the nation and in 60 countries around the world.

Tim McIntyre
Vice President, Communications
Domino’s Pizza, LLC

Thanks, Jonathan!

“Domino’s Rogue Employees Do Disgusting Things To The Food, Put It On YouTube”
(Illustration: olarte.ollie)

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