The Worst Things Fast Food Workers Have Ever Done
Eating at a fast food restaurant can be a bit of a gamble. Of course, we all know that grabbing a sack of greasy burgers and fries probably isn't the healthiest meal choice, but hey, sometimes eating clean takes a backseat to convenient, cheap, and easy.
While we might be willing to look the other way when it comes to fat, sodium, and calories, we would probably be a lot less likely to scarf down food that we know has been handled improperly, and no, we're not talking about a patty being cooked wrong — we're talking about biting into a bun that's been wiped across a grimy restaurant kitchen floor. (Yes, that happened.)
But let's say your food is treated with the utmost respect... What else do could you possibly have to worry about? How about sipping on a coffee full of extra chemicals? Or having hot grease flung in your face? (Yes, those things happened, too.)
Next time you hit the drive-thru, beware — fast food workers have done some pretty awful things to both the food and the customers they serve.
The secret ingredient at Checkers
You might follow the three-second rule when it comes to the food you drop on your own kitchen floor, but would you eat food that had been dropped on a fast food restaurant's kitchen floor? Or even worse, would you eat a burger whose bun had been purposefully wiped across the floor? That's what one Checkers employee was serving up at a Baltimore location in 2015.
In a cringeworthy video posted to YouTube, the laughing employee tosses a burger bun on the floor, wipes it across the (presumably) filthy tile, then proceeds to finish the sandwich with mayo and pickles. She wasn't laughing for long though — shortly after the video went viral, the company released a statement saying that the workers involved were no longer employed by Checkers, and that the adulterated burger was never served to a customer. Good news, but you have to wonder how many floor burgers were served before that viral video. *Shudder*
Arm iced tea
Drinks seem like a pretty safe order at a fast food place, right? They're typically dispensed from a machine, so there isn't a whole lot of opportunity for shenanigans... unless you happened to get the extra-special iced tea that one Kansas City Raising Cane's employee made in June 2018.
The secret ingredient? Arm. The video — captioned "Don't drink tea from Cane's, she tryflin cause we don't care no more" — shows an employee stirring a pitcher of iced tea with her entire bare arm, laughing and smiling at the camera, while an off-camera accomplice laughs along with her. Once the tea is properly infused with skin and who-knows-what-else, the worker walks over to the larger dispenser and pours the drink in to mingle with the rest of the iced tea.
Predictably, the video went viral and the two employees involved were promptly fired. It's a good thing they "don't care no more."
A latte full of chemicals
We all have our very specific coffeehouse orders, but most of us can probably agree that "toxic chemicals" are never part of our "tall decaf non-fat no foam vanilla latte" order. Unfortunately, that's what one customer got at an Alberta, Canada McDonald's, and to make matters even worse, she was pregnant.
The tainted latte, which the mom-to-be grabbed from the drive-thru in August 2018, had unknowingly been made with cleaning solution after the machine's lines got crossed. "What happened is that the machine was being cleaned — as it is every morning. Unfortunately, the milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guest's drink was made," a spokeswoman for McDonald's said.
Although the bottle of cleaning fluid came with warnings like "Causes serious eye irritation," "May cause an allergic skin reaction," "Keep out of reach of children," and "Wear protective gloves/eye protection," the customer was thankfully unharmed, having spit out the drink immediately.
Pita pocket full of spit
Pro tip: If you dare a fast food worker to spit in your food, they just might do it. If you pose that same dare to a certain Missoula area Pita Pit employee who is very unhappy that you came in at 2 a.m. when she wants to close the store, she will definitely do it. That's the scene that was captured on video in March 2018, anyway.
The video, which contains plenty of NSFW language, starts with the customer urging the agitated worker to spit in her sandwich. After a little not-so-friendly back and forth, the employee works up a lougie and send its straight into the pita pocket, prompting a quick food fight and some more name-calling. Perhaps the best part of the video though, is the completely undaunted co-worker who, although standing about two feet from this debacle, continues making pitas as if nothing is happening. Maybe he's witnessed this behavior before?
The disgusting Domino's duo
Once upon a time, Domino's Pizza ran the slogan, "Oh yes we did." Presumably the chain was not referring to employees who, among other gross offenses, farted on your food.
Two North Carolina Domino's workers filmed themselves doing that and more in 2009 (you can watch some of their video highlights here). One half of the disgusting duo is seen sneezing on cheesy breadsticks and massaging the snot in, sticking cheese up his nose before putting it on a sandwich, passing gas on salami, and wiping his backside with a sponge used to wash the dishes. Both parties laugh it up the whole time, providing "hilarious" commentary, but do you think they were still laughing when they were fired and charged with felony adulterating food? Doubtful.
Though the employees insisted it was all a prank and the company says none of the tainted food was served to customers, the incident unfortunately led to the franchise location's closing. So much for harmless pranks...
A face full of hot grease
The need for protective gear in a drive-thru seems like overkill, but it turns out you might want it if you're thinking about disagreeing with the fast food worker manning the window.
In two separate incidents within a month of each other, customers at a Philadelphia area Checkers and a North Little Rock McDonald's were subjected to a face full of hot grease, courtesy of the disgruntled employee taking their order. In both instances, the customers and employees became engaged in an argument over their orders, and both altercations ended with the employees retrieving cupfuls of scalding grease from the kitchen and flinging it into the car windows at the customers. The actions resulted in burns for both drivers, as well as other passengers present. Checkers and McDonald's both released statements confirming that the employees involved were terminated.
Bottom line: No fast food order is worth having grease thrown in your face. When in doubt, keep driving.
An epic rant at Del Taco
We all have bad days at work, although most of us do not unleash an epic, F-bomb filled rant on the customers we're supposed to be serving, particularly over something as trivial as hot sauce. But one Del Taco manager did just that in 2016.
Drive-thru customers at an Arizona Del Taco began filming the confrontation when the employee became irate, cursing at them and flipping them off, saying nobody would see the video anyway. "Where you gonna post it, YouTube? No one's gonna f***ing see it." Of course, it went viral.
He continued, "So how long you guys wanna do this? Like five minutes? An hour? I can do this all f***ing day. But like in reality, it's the same f***ing outcome. Why? Because you got your sauces and you guys are still being b****es, and I'm f***ing ticked off 'cause I still got orders."
When the customers called out his disgraceful behavior and suggested he could be fired, he laughed saying, "I am the boss. My dad's actually the f***ing owner so good luck with that." While being the manager's son probably has some perks, screaming at customers isn't one of them, and the employee was rightfully fired.
Foot lettuce
You would think that since we read about so many fast food workers who get fired for posting pictures and videos of themselves doing unsavory things to food that others would learn their lesson, and yet...
One naive Burger King employee learned the hard way that if you post an anonymous (or so you thought) picture of yourself standing in bins of shredded lettuce meant for human consumption, the internet will come for you.
Apparently 4chan users do not take kindly to their fast food being messed with, because within 15 minutes of the foot lettuce image being posted online they had identified the anonymous BK worker's location as Mayfield Heights, Ohio using GPS data from the picture, and alerted the store's manager along with local media. Three employees involved in the incident were fired, and the company said that all of the affected lettuce had been thrown away before being served to customers. Good job, 4chan-ers.
A stack of taco shells, licked
Another day, another fast food worker doing something gross to your food and posting proof of it on social media...
The image, posted to the Taco Bell Facebook feed, shows an employee holding a towering stack of crispy taco shells with his tongue resting about halfway up, presumably in the midst of licking them from bottom to top. Why oh why would you post that picture online? And to the Taco Bell Facebook page, no less?
The company said in a statement that the shells were only to be used in training and were about to be thrown out, but employees instead used them as part of "an internal contest in which company and franchise employees could submit for approval photos of themselves enjoying their first bite of the product. The contest had clear guidelines about what was acceptable and unacceptable. This image was clearly unacceptable — it violated the rules and spirit of the contest..." The employee was fired, making his first lick as a Taco Bell team member his last.
Special sauce on a burger
Of all the things that have been done to fast food, this one takes the cake. You'll be crossing your fingers that sneezes and farts are all you have to worry about after you read what one Jack's employee in Mississippi did to a burger.
In a viral Facebook post, the mother of a former Jack's worker alleged that her daughter had seen another employee put bodily fluids on a cheeseburger and serve it to a customer. "So if u went to Jack's between 10:00pm and 10:30pm on 1/7/2017 and u order the big jack with a sprite u got more then ketchup!!!" the post read. What kind of bodily fluids are we talking about here? Menstrual blood and saliva. Yes, really.
The employee who did the dirty deed turned herself in and pled guilty after being charged with "selling unwholesome bread or drink," a felony that landed her in prison.