You know how people say that Americans are too quick to sue? Well, here are 10 Times
People Tried To Scam Fast Food Restaurants. From ridiculous demands to full-on fraud attempts,
fast-food companies have seen it all.
McDonald's And Weight Gain This goes without saying, but McDonald's isn't
the healthiest restaurant out there. Heck, it's not even remotely healthy, and it's not
shy about it either. The nutritional values of McDonald's meals has never been a well-guarded
secret, and the majority of people know what eating there implies: Big Macs and Chicken
McNuggets won't help you stay in shape. But, while this might seem "so obvious" today,
back in 2002, things were a little bit different. Two teens, Jazlyn Bradley and Ashley Pelman,
tried to sue McDonald's because their regular outings to their local McD's in the Bronx
had made them gain weight. They claimed they weren't provided with "sufficient information
about the health risks" linked to a diet filled with frequent, if not daily, trips to the
fast-food chain. The lawsuit claimed that it was their addiction to McDonald's that
led to their obesity and that having known all of the health risks, they never would've
let it get this bad. Ultimately, the judge ruled that the two teens were responsible
for their diets and that no one had forced them to eat at McDonald's.
The Finger In The Chili Incident The year was 2005; it was a quiet day at a
Wendy's in San Jose, California, when suddenly, shrieks were heard in the dining room. What
could possibly cause all of this chaos? A finger was found in the usually comforting
bowl of chili. Anna Ayala was the unlucky woman who made the shocking discovery and
attempted to sue Wendy's for this traumatic experience. The only problem: she was the
one who had planted the finger in the chili. Indeed, after some investigation, she finally
confessed that she had gotten the severed finger from her husband, who had gotten it
from a coworker injured in a factory accident. This little sneaky attempt at making bank
landed her and her husband in prison, but not before Wendy's reputation suffered a
lot of needless damage. Think about it: would you want to eat at a restaurant where someone
found a human limb in it? Real or not, people couldn't help but think about the gross encounter
whenever they thought of Wendy's. The chain estimated a loss of $21 million dollars in revenue following
the accusations. Anna Ayala is now banned from Wendy's for life, and the chain is back
on track.
Idea Thieves We've all experienced that moment when you
think you have the idea of the century, only to find out that someone already came up with
it. However, when that happens, most people will let it go, but not this particularly
insistent inmate who claimed to have come up with the idea of using Doritos as taco
shells. Gary Cole, a super-max prison inmate in Colorado, was furious when he heard about
Taco Bell selling his idea of Doritos Locos Tacos and demanded justice. While serving
his 25-year sentence, Cole had supposedly mailed a notarized document to his attorney
with his idea for the tacos in 2006, 6 years before Taco Bell released its version. Cole demanded
an FBI investigation and even contacted the IRS about "an idea or invention that was
submitted to them by theft and fraud.” Obviously, none of these things ended up happening, but
he still wanted to take matters to court. He was representing himself, but the case
was dismissed because of the "three strikes" rule. Basically, this rule prohibits inmates
from filing civil lawsuits after three or more have been dismissed. Cole was apparently
no stranger to the whole foolish lawsuits thing. To be honest, no matter who came up
with the Doritos Locos Tacos, we're just glad they're here today.
Empty Bucket Of Chicken Everybody knows that the food you see in fast-food
commercials is not the same food you're going to get. The overflowing, steamy meal seen
on TV is usually pretty scarce and a little cold, but that's okay; we expect it. One woman,
however, did not and wanted to get back what she was due. In 2016, Anna Wurtzburger from
New York finally had enough of what she claimed to be "commercial lies" and took KFC to court
for false advertisement regarding their buckets "overflowing with chicken." She wasn't satisfied
with the small portion she received in her order and said it did not live up to the expectations
shown in the commercial. According to her lawsuit, when she received her bucket of chicken,
there were only eight pieces in it, which was "not enough chicken to fill up the bucket
and that the ads had falsely stated that 'it could feed your whole family." To build her
case even further, Wurtzburger said that this wasn't the first time her bucket was
royally unsatisfying: she claimed to have made "multiple purchases" at her local KFC
and was greeted with the same, under-filled order every time. What did she want for her
oh, so troubling experience? A modest sum of $20 million dollars. Unsurprisingly enough,
the case was eventually dismissed because of the impossibility to provide real and concrete
evidence that a violation of the law had happened.
The Lonely Napkin The only downside of eating greasy fast food
is how messy it can get. In 2014, a man was taken aback when while enjoying his Quarter
Pounder - he realized he only had one napkin. Scandalous! How could you freely eat your
food if you know the hazardous mess that's about to be unleashed? But before taking his
case to court, Webster Lucas did try to take it up with the manager of the McDonald's,
only the interaction didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped. After asking the manager
if he could get more napkins, he was told that he already had enough. Some comments
were made, suggesting prejudice coming from the manager who "developed a nasty attitude
and mumbled a few words," so Lucas left the restaurant. He decided to write an email to
the general manager, who apologized and offered him free burgers. However, Lucas wrote back
that he was now "unable to work because of the undue mental anguish and the intentional
infliction of emotional distress” and took the chain to court - and for a pretty penny,
too. In his lawsuit, he demanded $1.5 million dollars, claiming he suffered mental anguish,
emotional distress and was discriminated against. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, and
Lucas landed on California's Vexatious Litigant List, which prohibits him from filing lawsuits
for a while.
Un-Fresh Raspberries When you want a greasy, filling, and unhealthy
dessert, donuts are usually a good go-to snack. Obviously, we're not teaching you anything
when we say that donuts are, well, not that healthy and should probably be eaten as a
treat and not on a regular basis. However, fan-favorite Krispy Kreme had to find out
the hard way just how much they should be advertising this fact. Back in 2016, Jason
Saidian of California decided to file a lawsuit against Krispy Kreme for false advertising
regarding their berry donuts, claiming they weren't made with real fruit. In his $5 million
dollar lawsuit, Saidian claimed he only bought the raspberry donuts because raspberries are
supposed to be "a rich source of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, potassium and dietary fiber
... and help fight against cancer, heart and circulatory disease, and age-related decline."
Basically, he was trying to score $5 million dollars from a $1 dollar donut: the definition
of a scam. But the raspberry donuts weren't the only culprits targeted by the suit; the
glazed blueberry cake, donut holes, as well as the maple iced glazed, and maple bar were
also at fault here, apparently "purposely deceiving customers." But, whether it was
because the sugar rush of the donuts wore off or the idea suddenly became ridiculous,
the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed and was never brought up again.
No Cheese, Please If you're a cheese enthusiast, you know that
to get that melting gold, you usually need to pay extra, but it's all worth it in the
end. Jeromy Jackson, on the other hand, had a very different opinion on cheese, which
almost made him become a multimillionaire by suing McDonald's for $10 million dollars
over, you guessed it, cheese! Contrary to what it might look like, he didn't sue the
chain for forgetting to put the cheese on his burger but rather for putting it on against
his wishes. Indeed, Jackson had apparently repeatedly told the staff to hold the cheese
because he was allergic. To his surprise, after finishing his sandwich, he had to be
rushed to the hospital after a severe allergic reaction. He probably could've gotten away
with it, if only he had actually checked his sandwich before he ate it, after being so
"insistent" on the "don't put any cheese on my burger" thing. The case was eventually
dismissed, only it wasn't the last time someone tried to get a few bucks out of McDonald's
because of the cheese. About a decade later, Cynthia Kissner and Leonard Werner filed a lawsuit,
this time asking for $5 million dollars after claiming they had been charged full price
for a Quarter Pounder with cheese, even though they ordered it without the cheese. The 30
cents charged was, according to the couple, worthy of a much bigger sum, which was obviously
not given.
Monopoly Shenanigans As many of you may know, every year, McDonald's
offers the Monopoly game promotion, which allows customers to win various prizes. But,
what some people might not be aware of is that for a while, this game was rigged - and
not just a little rigged. Between the years 1989 and 2001, a solid 12 years, former Georgia
police officer Jerome Jacobson had complete control over who could win the jackpot. As
the person in charge of the distribution of the game stamps, Jacobson decided to make
the most out of his knowledge and distributed the winning stamps to his friends and family
across the country in exchange for a cut of the money or prizes. During his 12 years of
ruling, Jacobson stole a total of $24 million dollars from McDonald's. It looked like he
was going to get away with it all until the FBI was tipped off about the mysterious connection
the last three Monopoly winners had with a man named "Uncle Jerry." He and several other
people ended up being arrested for mail fraud and sent to jail. After the story broke, McDonald's
decided to retire the Monopoly game, at least, until the dust settled.
Too Much Ice Cold drinks have ice in them - that's not
something that should be surprising to anyone. Yet, Starbucks was sued, not once but twice,
for the way they made their iced coffee. The first plaintiff was Illinois resident Stacy
Pincus who filed a lawsuit against the coffee chain for putting too much ice in their iced
coffee and that it was drastically reducing the amount of liquid in her drink. She claimed
that Starbucks was trying to scam customers since they were getting less than what they
paid for. She felt like $5 million dollars in damages was good enough for her unfairly
over-iced drinks - but the court didn't seem to think so, and the case was dismissed. The
second person who tried to sue Starbucks regarding the amount of ice was Alexander Forouzesh,
a man from California, only this time, the case was not the only thing that was dismissed
- his intelligence was as well. To hopefully put an end to this nonsense attack on Starbucks,
the U.S. District Judge said: "If children have figured out that including ice in a cold
beverage decreases the amount of liquid they will receive, the court has no difficulty
concluding that a reasonable consumer would not be deceived by the ice..." Starbucks even
released a statement reminding customers that they were always welcome to ask for light
or extra ice whenever they placed an order and that if they weren't satisfied with their
drink, they could also tell the barista who will be happy to replace it.
The Fake Discovery Finding something inedible in your fast food
is everyone's worst nightmare - especially when that something is sharp and could potentially
kill you. A woman in Louisiana had allegedly gone through this traumatic experience - at
least before it was revealed to be a giant scam. Correill Bradley claimed she found a
razor blade in her unnamed fast-food sandwich and went to Mercy Regional Medical Center
in Eunice to tend to her injury. Initially, she refused to file a report to not "cause
anyone trouble." But it was revealed that the injury was self-inflicted.
Plus, the blade seemed to be new and showed no signs of having been mixed with anything.
And the cherry on top of this lie, minutes before she purchased the sandwich, Bradley
was caught on security footage from a local store, stealing a pack of razor blades. She
also sought out a personal injury attorney the same day and had already filed an insurance
claim with the restaurant’s insurance company. Everything pointed to the obvious: she planted
the blade herself in hopes of scoring some insurance money - resulting in, you guessed
it, charges of criminal mischief and theft.
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