Waffle Iron Dispute Gets 30 People Kicked Out Of Michigan Hotel

A quarrel between two women over a waffle iron in a hotel breakfast room reportedly resulted in 30 guests being asked to exit the premises.

Apparently things got animated when one woman allegedly cut in line to gain access to the waffle maker. The incident occurred at the America’s Best Value Inn located in Pere Marquette Township, Michigan.

Anyone who has ever stayed at a motel or hotel offering a free continental breakfast featuring make-your-own waffles is already well aware that the queue in front of the waffle iron (and it’s almost always just one machine) can get intense, or shall we say heated, especially among those who haven’t yet otherwie satisfied their caffeine cravings.

In this Michigan incident, responding sheriff’s deputies encountered a large group of hotel guests engaged in an argument about the waffle maker. The manager was definitely not waffling about the episode and wanted the 30 out-of-towners involved in the fracas to pack their bags and hit the road.

“It sounded like one lady walked up and asked the other lady if she was in line for the waffle maker. She didn’t answer, so this lady started to make her waffle. The other confronted her and said, ‘That was my waffle’ and the other lady said, ‘No, it’s mine’ and then it went downhill from there,” Mason County Sheriff Kim Cold told MLive.com. “There was just a lot of yelling and screaming, but no one was assaulted. They were all asked to leave and the deputy stood by while they did that.” The sheriff also noted that a language barrier may have contributed to the disagreement between the two women.

No arrests were made, but cops were pulled off of their regular duties to sort things out at the hotel. “We had two-thirds of our road patrol tied up on this fiasco,” the sheriff added about the incident that occurred on Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend, but has just recently come to light.

Mason County was also coincidentally the scene of another food-related law enforcement 911 call after a woman allegedly had a meltdown over the lack of sprinkles on her ice cream cone.

If you’re a foodie and just happen to be wondering, the terms waffle iron and waffle maker can be used interchangeably. As thekitchn.com explains, however, “strictly speaking, a waffle iron is a gadget that makes waffles over the stove or campfire,” while a waffle maker, undoubtedly like the one at the establishment in question, is “like an electric griddle for waffles.”

Parenthetically, in an incident not involving self-service waffles, a Florida woman called 911 last year to report a case of unacceptably raw waffles at a Tampa restaurant.

[Photo by Chaloner Woods, Hulton Archive / Getty Images]