Although grease and fat are the most criticized aspects of fast food, here are some truly disgusting fast food stories from the past decade.
While I was in Columbus on Saturday, I stopped by a McDonald’s for a quick lunch. Although fast food is hardly a healthy meal, that was the only real option available at the time. As I sat in the backseat munching on my McDouble, I realized that people were always mentioning horror stories about fast food. Without further adieu, here are some stories I found on the Interwebs.
January 2005: NYPD officer John Florio decided that he was going to head over to a McDonald’s and enjoy a meal on the go. After he ordered his juicy Big Mac, Florio took an enormous bite. Instead of taking a bite of beef, lettuce and other normal Big Mac ingredients, Florio found himself with a mouthful of glass, resulting in multiple lacerations and broken teeth.
Naturally, Mr. Florio was very displeased.
The incident resulted in the arrest of the burger flipper on duty, Albert Garcia. What followed was a massive legal mess, in which Garcia admitted to putting glass into Florio’s burger before recanting on his confession. Despite the dubious nature of the entire event, given the strange twists and turns within the testimony, Garcia filed a civil lawsuit case against the police department and the McDonald’s, leading to a $437,000 settlement in favor of Garcia and bewilderment from the NYPD.
Although McDonald’s may be one of the most recognizable and largest fast food chains in the world, not all fast food horror stories happen within the Golden Arches’ restaurants.
In 2003, a Baltimore man pulled up to a Popeye’s and decided to chow down on a three-piece meal. After gobbling down the first piece, the Baltimore man grabbed the second piece and bit down. Unfortunately, the second piece meal turned out to be a fried mouse, something that the fried chicken restaurant probably did not intend to sell.
Despite the fact that suspicions were raised that the “mouse” within the meal could be a hoax, it seems highly likely that a mouse was accidentally served, given that the same Popeye’s restaurant had been previously shut down twice due to mouse infestations and sanitation concerns.
Potentially the most disgusting story I read was that of Vermont resident Van Miguel Hartless, one of Burger King’s customers in 2007. Hartless decided to pick up a Southwestern Whopper on the way home. As he settled himself comfortably, the man picked up his sandwich and began chewing big bites.
When he bite the burger the third time, Hartless discovered himself chewing through something bitter and rubbery: Apparently, Hartless had just taken a massive bite of unwrapped condom, an idea that is impossibly repulsive and disgusting.
Even though it is unclear whether the condom had been used before being embedded within his sandwich, Hartless was unsurprisingly very unhappy about the event that had transpired. He sued the owners of the franchise, stating that chomping on the condom has caused him to vomit repeatedly, have nightmares and experience large levels of emotional distress. Hartless also preserved his Southwestern Whopper by freezing it in a plastic bag in his continuing battle with the franchise owners.
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I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m glad that I’ve never eaten glass, mice or condoms before when I visited fast food restaurants. Even though we all whine and moan about how disgusting fast food is, at least be thankful of the fact that we have never experienced a scarring moment of ultimate disgust.
Richard Hwang is a student at Athens High School. Do you have any fast food horror stories? Email him at rhwang999@gmail.com.
