A McDonald’s employee from North Little Rock, Arkansas has been fired after allegedly throwing hot grease at a customer’s face after an altercation.
Police officers were called to the scene by the manager after the customer, Tonio Andrews, “became irate in the drive-thru and had returned and smashed the glass on the lobby door,” according to the police report from the North Little Rock Police Department.
Not long after, police received another call, though this time it was from Andrews, saying that an employee from the restaurant had thrown hot grease at him after he changed his mind about his food order. Andrews says the employee told him, “You need to make up your [f-word]ing mind and quit wasting my time.”
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With only 30 minutes between the calls, the situation had escalated greatly. Andrews had originally ordered a “20-piece chicken nugget meal but he had changed his mind when he got up to the window.”
The drive-thru employee and Andrews got into an argument over the order, according to the police report. When the employee tried to close the window on Andrew’s arm, he pushed it back open, prompting her to take a “container filled with boiling hot grease,” and throw it into Andrews’ face.
When officers arrived at the scene again, they confirmed the marks on Andrews’ face were “consistent with a grease burn.” The customer did drive away to gather his family, breaking the North Little Rock McDonald’s door when they returned.
The customer was transferred to the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences for his burns after the incident concluded.
The owner and operator of the McDonald’s, Michael Retzer, Jr., announced on Wednesday that the unnamed employee in the incident has been fired.
“While the customer was threatening and harassing staff, our employee handled things inappropriately,” Retzer said. “The employee was immediately fired after we learned of the incident, and we continue to work closely with the police to further investigate.”