Latreasa Goodman went into her local Florida McDonalds and ordered a $3.49 10-piece chicken McNuggets meal.  After the McDonalds employee took her order and her money, Goodman was informed that they had run out of McNuggets.  She was told that she would have to choose something else from the menu for the same price.  Goodman refused saying she didn’t want anything else and that if she couldn’t have McNuggets, she wanted her money back.

The McDonalds employee told her that McDonalds does not give refunds.  Goodman was told that she had to pick something else or get nothing.

Instead of getting angry or belligerent with the McDonalds employee, Goodman did what you are told to do when you are being robbed – she called the police.

She called them by placing not one, but three separate 911 calls.

I actually feel sorry for Latreasa Goodman.  I’ve heard the 911 tapes and she sounds calm and collected.  She just wanted what she has coming to her; her McNuggets or her money.  It doesn’t sounds like a lot to ask.  Granted, you aren’t supposed to call 911 over something that isn’t an emergency, but who knows the phone number to their local police department?  Not that I would ever call the police.  I learned a long time ago that you are better off simply taking care of problems yourself and not involving the police.

I once had a similar problem with McDonalds not giving me something I paid for.  It was years ago when I was just a kid and still lived in California.  I went through the McDonalds drive-thru right before closing and ordered some burgers.  The person at the window took my money and then told me to park up ahead and someone would bring us our food.  I pulled up ahead and waited.  And I waited.    My food never came.  I pulled back around to the same drive-thru window and tapped on the glass.  The manager came over to the window and instead of giving me my food, yelled that they were closed.  I tried to explain that I had been waiting for my food, but she would not listen.  She just kept on screaming that they were closed.

Unable to do anything else, I left.

The next weekend, I went back to that same McDonalds and I saw that the same manager was on duty. I then left and went down the street to a payphone. I found the phone number to that McDonalds in the phone book and I placed a call. The manager answered the phone and I explained to her that I was a bus driver hauling a bunch of high school kids back from a band competition. I said that I was about 45 minutes away and that I wanted to give her the heads-up that we would be stopping to eat. She thanked me for the heads-up and said that they would be ready.

I waited an hour and went back to that same McDonalds. At this point in the evening it was around 11:00 p.m. and the dinning room was practically empty. I went to the counter and ordered a Coke. I looked behind the counter and into the kitchen area. There was a massive amount of food ready to be sold. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and Big Macs were everywhere growing colder by the minute. The manager — the same woman the week before that refused to even listen to me at the drive-thru window — was visibly angry. I think by this point she realized that there was no bus load of hungry kids coming and that all that food would have to be trashed.

She really should have listened to me the week before.