McDonald’s Cashier Allegedly Punches Mom Over Happy Meal Hassle

A McDonald’s cashier allegedly punched an unhappy mom in the face after she complained that her son’s Happy Meal was missing a slice of cheese on his cheeseburger.

In the Sunset Park McDonald’s restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y., the two women had a heated exchange over whether a plain hamburger or a cheeseburger was ordered for the youngster.

As a result, the mom is suing McDonald’s for civil damages in the incident, and the trial is ongoing in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

The lawyer representing the young child’s mother, Gui Ying Shi, said of the McDonald’s employee, “She starts cursing at her, calls her stupid, said, ‘You need to learn to speak English.’ Ms. Acosta throws a left cross to Ms. Shi’s right jaw. Knockout! Knocks out a tooth.”

The trial attorney handling the case for McDonald’s insisted that the contact was “a lunge or a slap” rather than a punch. The McDonald’s store manager reportedly fired the employee immediately after the incident. The defense attorney added that “It goes without saying that Marisol Acosta was not authorized to get into an altercation with a customer.” Police reportedly arrested the cashier for assault.

Although there are lots of technicalities in the law that can indicate otherwise depending on the exact circumstances, an employer in general can be held legally responsible for the wrongdoing of an employee if that employee is on the clock.

This is hardly the first time that violence allegedly broke out at a fast-food restaurant but it’s usually customer on employee rather than the other way around. Elsewhere In New York City, however, there was a highly publicized incident in 2011 where a McDonald’s cashier attacked two unruly customers with a metal rod.

In a separate incident somewhere in the south, a Wendy’s customer had a meltdown when his drive-thru-ordered hamburger came with cheese rather than the other way around. “When you have cheeseburger, you have cheeseburger; when you have hamburger, you have hamburger. I want my money back now, and I want it fast.”

[image credit: Christina Kennedy]