We’ve all been there: You’ve dropped by a fast food place hangry, and you’re ready to eat, only to discover the restaurant has messed up your order. Sure, you might ask to speak to a manager — but pull out a loaded weapon?
According to the San Pablo Police Department, a woman in that exact situation did just that. In a Facebook post, San Pablo, California police say a woman ordered food at an unnamed fast food restaurant in early December and then sent her 9-year-old daughter back inside the restaurant to complain they forgot her fries. The restaurant said if she showed them her receipt, they would make her mother’s order right.
The woman then entered the restaurant beyond hangry and threatened several employees, one of whom called 911, telling them she had a loaded gun in her purse, which her daughter was holding. Once officers arrived, the girl handed over the purse with a firearm inside it, and cops arrested the girl’s mother.
The French-fry felon
Once in custody, the woman was charged with making criminal threats with a firearm and child endangerment, both felonies. The children’s father picked up the kids.
The P.D. of San Pablo, near San Francisco, maintained a sense of humor about what could have been a scary incident. They concluded their post on the matter, “She had to wait even longer for her food, which unfortunately was a sandwich and milk rather than a hamburger and fries.”
A streak of scary service-industry situations
That San Pablo situation turned out okay, but it’s been a rough few months for fast-food employees. Alleged CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, after all, was arrested at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s. Two months before that, in October, 30-year-old Johnathan Taylor walked into Texas City, TX, Wendy’s location covered in blood, and the Wendy’s employees called the cops.
Taylor had stab wounds, and he told the police he had been robbed, but he finally said he attacked his mother. When officers arrived at her home, they found Taylor’s mother with serious stab wounds, and she later died. Taylor has been charged with her murder.
The torment hasn’t been reserved for fast-food employees, either. The same month the bloody man appeared at a Texas Wendy’s, Louisiana retail employees had a scare, too, when a blue-bearded man with scribbles on his face, 42-year-old Timothy Lincoln of Louisiana, was arrested and charged with threatening to blow up an Ulta Beauty location in a phone call overheard outside the business. Needless to say, Lincoln has been banned from Ulta locations nationwide.
Believe it or not, Lincoln’s case was the second bomb threat made at a beauty store this year. In June, 24-year-old Williams Rodriguez-Juarez was arrested for making a bomb threat and other charges at Primark location, a beauty and fashion store in downtown Boston, Boston25News reported. Rodriguez-Juarez reportedly resisted arrest and bit a responding officer.
Referring to the Rodriguez-Juarez case, District Attorney Kevin Hayden said, “This type of conduct goes far above and beyond mere shoplifting. All employees and shoppers have the right to a safe store environment, and all security guards and police officers should be able to carry out their duties without resistance.”