McDonald’s Customer Arrested After Calling 9-1-1 About Mixed-Up Order


A man in Georgia decided to call 9-1-1 after not receiving everything he ordered during a recent trip to his local McDonald’s. His plan backfired, however, when he was the one who ended up behind bars.

The customer tells WALB-TV that he’d placed a sizable order at the Golden Arches — 7 McDoubles, 1 McChicken, and 1 order of fries.

“I left out the store without checking it, but when I got to my truck and I got ready to leave I looked in my bag and come to find out I had six McDoubles,” he recalls.

When he went back into the eatery, he claims the employee he spoke to “was trying to get an attitude with me,” so didn’t just threaten to call the cops, he actually dialed those three digits that are intended for us in emergency situations.

“I called the police and thinking that everything all cool by calling the police,” he says. “I didn’t know I was misusing 9-1-1.”

But that’s exactly what the officer who showed up on the scene charged him with. His call about the missing McDouble landed him in a jail cell overnight.

“I want justice,” he tells WALB. “I want to be treated like a person with respect.”

Authorities tell the station that while it may seem amusing that someone called 9-1-1 on a fast food incident, the fact is that the time wasted on that call could delay responders from dealing with an actual emergency.

“It’s really not funny,” says the Deputy Director of the Albany, GA, 9-1-1 team. “The person who was waiting to get a call in, to call for an ambulance because of a car wreck is having to wait, possibly.”

While the customer might have had a valid dispute on his hands, it probably did not merit bringing in the police. It certainly didn’t seem to rise to the level of calling 9-1-1.

And so we add this McDonald’s customer to the following list of 9-1-1 abusers who have been featured on the pages of Consumerist:

The Connecticut man who was unhappy about the meat-to-mayo ratio on his turkey sandwich.
The Cincinnati man who thought he’d use 9-1-1 to complain about a subpar Skyline Chili experience.
The man in Tennessee who repeatedly called 9-1-1 asking for someone to bring him beer, but then denied owning a phone.
The New Hampshire woman who tried to use 9-1-1 for assistance in placing a Chinese food order.

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