A McDonald’s drive-thru customer who was upset upon being informed that the fast-food outlet’s ice cream machine was broken allegedly told his passenger to pull a fake AR-15 rifle out of the car’s trunk, Delray Beach, Florida, according to police
The drive-thru worker allegedly spotted the passenger retrieve what was described as a long-barrel firearm on a security camera, and he and his co-workers headed to the bathroom to hide while calling 911 because they thought the weapon was real. Responding officers also reviewed the video surveillance footage that appears to confirm the employee’s version of the events.
According to the probable cause affidavit , what appeared to be an AR-15 airsoft gun “did not have any clear visible markings to distinguish it from an actual AR-15.”
Upon being questioned, the suspect identified by police, Jerry Henry, 19, allegedly admitted to cops that he placed the replica rifle between his legs in the front seat after the driver asked him to remove the “stick” from the trunk of the BMW following the ice cream dispute at the drive-thru.
Henry was charged with one count of improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon or a firearm. Released on his own recognizance, he has a September 7 court date on the misdemeanor, The Smoking Gun reported . The driver was not charged in the August 13 incident in Palm Beach County that occurred shortly before midnight.
Cops: McDonald’s drive-thru passenger pulls out replica AR-15 rifle after ice cream dispute https://t.co/2MJjwLTseK pic.twitter.com/vlNtdkoB4m
— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) August 16, 2017
At another McDonald’s outlet in Florida, three female McDonald’s customers — two of whom were reportedly minors — who were irate over a broken ice cream machine, allegedly jumped the counter and physically attacked an employee. The flurry about the McFlurry machine occurred at a McDonald’s restaurant in Daytona Beach last month.The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office is still on the lookout for the trio.
If you follow social media trends, there tends to be a lot of chatter from would-be customers across the country about McDonald’s ice cream machines being out of order frequently. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal cited by several different news outlets about the “blizzard of complaints,” one possible explanation is that the soft-serve devices necessitate a three-plus-hour cleaning cycle to eliminate bacteria.
Help is on the way, however. In good news for McFlurry fans, McDonald’s is in the process of installing new ice cream machines that will be more reliable and easier to maintain while less prone to parts failure.
[Featured Image by Gene J. Puskar/AP Images]
