If you drive by a McDonald’s at any given time of the day or night, there are going to be people sitting in the drive-through ordering food. It’s something that happens around the world millions of times every day, so there are likely to be problems on occasion.
One problem that occurred in an Ohio McDonald’s actually caused them to close the restaurant. They were forced to close it after a customer said that they found a crack pipe in their breakfast order.
It happened on December 19 when the customer visited McDonald’s on the west side of Columbus. They wanted to buy some breakfast, but when they opened the bag, they found the crack pipe lying inside.
After finding it, they went on Reddit to share the news and said: “Not sure what I should do… Order breakfast from drive-through and found a crack pipe in the bag… Luckily I’m an adult and not a child opening a happy meal.”
According to the OP, the manager was notified about the incident and they tried to give him the bag but he didn’t want to take it back.
Eventually, other Reddit users said that the customer should report the incident to Franklin County Public Health. They then forwarded the complaint to Columbus Public Health.
Now that the authorities were involved, an emergency health inspection at the restaurant was conducted. The owner of the franchise, Alex Mendoza said that it was the first priority of the company to care for the safety of the customers and crew.
He said that they’ve been through a thorough internal review of the claim and have no indication that the item came from the restaurant. They are continuing to investigate and have been in touch with local law enforcement to report the matter.
The health agency did temporarily close the McDonald’s and said they had until January 4 to correct health code violations that were uncovered during the review. Those included construction work being done at the restaurant.
The report said that construction workers were moving through the food prep and customer seating areas freely and that debris, trash, and dust were in the restaurant. Inspectors also observed construction dust on food preparation counters, flooring, and equipment. They said that the food was not protected from those sources of contamination.
The McDonald’s did close temporarily but they were able to reopen on December 21.