10 Wildest Incidents That Have Ever Gone Down At McDonald's

McDonald's is the home of the delicious Big Mac, the Happy Meal, and the McNuggets. As one of the fast food giants that rules the industry, we all think we know what to expect when we come to the Golden Arches for a meal. But as it turns out, McDonald's has set the scene for some pretty bizarre interactions, making us wonder if these unfortunate incidents were simply accidental or if the home of the Happy Meal actually attracts some seedy characters.

From drug deals at the drive-thru window and babies born in the bathroom to violent customer temper tantrums and even murder, some insanely wild interactions have gone down at McDonald's restaurants across the globe. We've scoured the internet and collected some of the downright unbelievable moments and secrets that McDonald's probably doesn't want you to know. A few of these deranged tales even go down in history as some of the most memorable crimes to happen in a fast food restaurant.

In 2022, a woman named Alandria Worthy stopped by McDonald's for what she thought would be a quick trip to the bathroom — little did she know that she would be leaving with a newborn baby girl. Alandria and her fiancé, Deandre Phillips, were on the way to the hospital to give birth when the couple pulled over at a McDonald's so Alandria could use the restroom. As soon as she stepped into the bathroom, her water broke, and she went into active labor. The general manager of the restaurant heard her screaming in the bathroom and rushed in to help.

The general manager, two other McDonald's employees, and Alandria's fiancé helped deliver the baby right there in the restroom. The three women were mothers themselves and helped Alandria push while instructing her fiancé to catch the baby when she came out. Thankfully, the baby was born perfectly healthy and was given the nickname "Little Nugget" as a nod to the place where she entered the world.

Shantia Dennis, 26, was busted for working a side hustle from the McDonald's drive-thru window. The McDonald's worker was dealing heroin in Happy Meal boxes to customers who used a code phrase related to buying a Happy Meal toy. The authorities received a tip about the operation and set up an undercover drug buy at the Pittsburgh McDonald's to catch her in the act.

Sure enough, the officers used the code phrase and were given a Happy Meal box with a bag of heroin inside. Shantia charged them $80 for the exchange, and then the officers arrested her on-site and placed her in custody. The young woman had 40-50 additional bags of heroin in her purse. McDonald's corporate claimed to have no knowledge of the operation and stated that they would be launching a full investigation into the incident to ensure employees and customers felt safe.

In 1984, a tragic incident occurred in a San Diego McDonald's that came to be known as the "McDonald's Massacre". James Huberty, 41, was a seemingly normal man with a wife and two daughters. However, he was resentful after being fired from his security guard job a few days prior to the shooting. One day, after bringing his kids to the San Diego Zoo, he put ammunition in his car and drove to a San Ysidro McDonald's to open fire on everyone inside. He made an eerie comment to his wife about "hunting humans" before he left the house.

Twenty-one people were killed and 19 others were injured during the violent rampage. After 90 minutes of shooting, a sharpshooter on the SWAT team fatally shot Huberty, putting an end to the violence. At the time, the event was the largest mass shooting by a single shooter, and it was also one of the first public mass shootings in the country. Following the tragic event, the franchisee owner decided to demolish the San Ysidro McDonald's location.

In February 2014, a 30-year-old woman named Shaneka Torres ordered a cheeseburger at her local Grand Rapids, Michigan, McDonald's drive-thru. When the staff forgot to add bacon to her order she complained to the manager, who offered her a free burger as an apology for the mistake. Shaneka left the restaurant but returned at 3 a.m. to order another cheeseburger.

When the staff forgot the bacon a second time she angrily confronted the staff and then pulled out her handgun to fire into the restaurant. Thankfully, no one was injured and Torres was arrested. Her attorney argued in court that the firearm was fired on accident, but her verbal assault of the employee prior to the shooting confirmed to a jury that she was, in fact, guilty. She was sentenced to three to seven years in prison for possessing a firearm and shooting into the building.

An enormous brawl involving more than 200 people broke out just outside of a McDonald's restaurant in East London in 2015. Authorities were notified of the massive disturbance when the violence spilled out into the town center and in front of the train station. Many of the people involved were young boys and girls between the ages of 16 and 20 and many of them were armed. Some of the weapons confiscated from the scene were knives and baseball bats with nails hammered into them.

The reason for the brawl is unknown, but some social media posts claimed the chaos sparked from two girls from rival colleges arguing about a boy. The brawl lasted quite awhile before police were able to shut down the street, break up the violence, and arrest at least three individuals believed to be responsible for the criminal activity.

Of all the unappealing things you would hope not to find in a restaurant, a deceased animal probably ranks pretty high on the list. In an unfortunate incident in San Francisco, a homeless man brought a deceased raccoon inside a McDonald's and placed it on the table in the dining room, causing quite the disturbance. Bystander Chris Brooks took a video of the incident and can be heard exclaiming, "Only in San Francisco!" from behind the camera.

Also in the video, a McDonald's worker can be seen instructing the man to take the animal back outside, pointing at the door. Eventually, a gloved individual managed to take the raccoon outside and put it in a trash can, though it didn't save patrons from the bloody sight they had already been so unlucky to see. The Department of Environmental Health had to get involved and close the restaurant for five hours following the incident to ensure the McDonald's was cleaned and sanitized to be safe. While raccoon meat might be a popular delicacy in some places, McDonald's is no place for an animal like that.

Adam Garcia, the general manager of a McDonald's franchise in the Bronx, was stabbed by a homeless man in the parking lot of the restaurant where he worked in January 2016. Apparently, Garcia had escorted the man from the restaurant and into the parking lot after he noticed him loitering in the restaurant and bathroom for several hours, an occurrence which happens daily at this particular franchise.

The two got into an argument, and the homeless man became aggressive and stabbed Garcia in the neck and chest multiple times outside of the restaurant. Garcia managed to make his way back into the restaurant and was rushed to the hospital, but tragically did not survive the incident. Rafael Gonzalez, 48, was charged with the crime after turning himself in to authorities two nights after the incident took place.

While we all know how frustrating it can be to get the wrong order, most of us can agree that violence is not the answer. However, for Christopher Slate and Sean Mosey, an incorrect burger order was enough to send them on an alcohol-driven mission to destroy a McDonald's. The pair ordered cheeseburgers that were apparently lacking in onions and their rage was fueled by an interaction with the McDonald's manager.

They left the restaurant to continue drinking and stew on the situation before they decided to return to the restaurant around 3 a.m. They threw bricks and a slab of concrete through the windows of the restaurant, injuring two employees in the process. The police caught Mosey when he fell during his escape attempt and found Slate at his residence, where he confessed to the vandalism.

McDonald's employee Virginia Maiden woke up surprised and confused to find her car had been stolen overnight from her apartment complex parking lot. She managed to make it to her shift at a Kennewick, Washington McDonald's where she was shocked to see her Toyota 4Runner come through the drive-thru. She noticed her McDonald's visor sitting on the dashboard of the vehicle and immediately recognized it as her own.

The car thief ordered ice cream and some other items at the drive-thru window and a quick-thinking Maiden stalled her by claiming the ice cream machine was broken. She managed to call the police and the woman who had stolen the car, a 22-year-old named Katherine York, was arrested in the parking lot of the restaurant. Why she thought it was a good idea to drive the car to the place where the owner works, we may never know.

In an incident that became known as the "McNugget Rage," a woman threw a violent tantrum when she was refused chicken nuggets. As any McDonald's fan knows, the fast food giant only serves the breakfast menu until after 10:30 a.m. or 11:00 a.m., depending on location. However, Melodi Dushane was overcome with rage when she attempted to order nuggets one morning, and her breakdown was all captured on a security camera.

When the McDonald's employee at the drive-thru window told her she couldn't order McNuggets during breakfast hours, she got out of her vehicle and reached through the window, assaulting two employees on the other side. She then threw a bottle from her car through the glass window before peeling off. The woman spent 60 days in jail and was ordered to pay the restaurant for the window damage. Dushane claimed she was drunk at the time of the incident.