Fast Food Workers Share Some Of The Most Wild Tales From The Drive-Thru

"I was working at a Tim Hortons in Newfoundland when I was 15. A guy comes up to the speaker box, orders his coffee, and then I heard a weird noise that sounded like an elephant. He approaches the window, lo and behold there is a baby elephant in the back of his pickup. At the drive-thru. On an island in Canada. I was so confused, but just couldn't bring up the elephant in the room — or pickup bed, I guess." — u/pollettuce

"Working at McDonald's my sophomore year of high school, some lady went through the drive-thru at about 1:00 a.m. Someone accidentally gave her a large diet coke instead of a large coke or something, so she threw the drink back through the window.

The drink landed quite heavily in the fry oil and splashed all over one of our co-workers. The girl drove away pretty fast, but the manager got her license plate number off the cameras. She was sued pretty badly." — u/Rebelpride1

"Was working at McDonald's presenting a few weeks ago, and this lady comes to pick up her milkshake and she says to me, 'You're doing a great job keep it up!' And proceeds to hand me a small fluffy toy snake. I closed the window and started laughing so hard." — u/novanerd

"Once, someone drove a truck to the window with a bed in the back. Another person got out, put the bed next to the window, and ordered their food, sitting on the bed to wait. The driver left. After receiving her food, the bed woman carried the bed to a parking space, got in, and ate." — anonymous on Reddit.

"I worked in McDonald's before going to university to help pay for things, as my foster parents didn't really have the means to help me much.

Anyway, there was this one man who came through the drive-thru, late 30s, clearly a farmer from his vehicle and dog in the back. He was always nice enough, pretty quiet, and I remember a couple of times that he tried to make nice small talk. When I worked either side of New Year, he asked me how things were and said I should be out having fun my age, asked if my Christmas was good and all that. I remember thinking he always seemed real lonely or was sad when he drove through and tried to carry [on a] conversation with me. I felt bad having to be quick with him and dart off because he just seemed like he wanted someone to talk to.

Long story short, he drove through one day and asked if my last name was what he thought it was. After a sideways glance from my manager, I said it was. He looked real sad and took his hat off, said that he reckoned he was my dad. My bio-mother didn't know who my dad was... so it was possible. My manager let me go on break.

So over my dinner, he explains that he slept with my mother around the time that she got pregnant. He was only 16. He was really apologetic/kind of seemed ashamed and said he was real sorry he didn't seek me out, make sure I wasn't his, that sort of thing. He was from a town about an hour's drive away, so that was a part of it. And no one ever showed up to tell him he was a dad or anything. I told him I was happy with my life, gave him my number, and told him to give me a bell sometime.

And yeah, that's how I met my dad. My bio-dad, I should say. After a few years, when I heard from my bio-mother again, she said that yeah, he was who she thought the father was... We went out for coffee three or four times, but we didn't have much to talk about. He and I never really maintained contact, the last time we spoke he told me he'd been diagnosed with MS. He had a couple of sons, but I was his only daughter, and he said that he was grateful we had met. He's still got my number somewhere." — u/awkwardfamilyreunion

"I once worked at a Dunkin' Donuts for a few months — until I realized I hated that job. Once we had a lovely woman pull up at the drive-thru 20 minutes before open. Naturally, my co-worker and I ignored her while we hurried to set up because without the headset on, we had no idea she was even there. And there was no way I was putting that thing on a minute earlier than I had to.

Eventually, she pulled up to the window with an evil-looking face. We gestured 'sorry' and that we weren't open yet. Apparently, she took it personally and started banging on the glass. When we opened the window to explain that we couldn't serve her yet, she began cursing and squeezed out of the car and hung thru the window spewing off insults. We just stared in awe. I think we told her the cops were coming or something and she left. She was crazy." — u/krbs77

"Not really the weirdest but the best...

So I'm working the drive-thru at Mickey D's, and this dude pulls up and orders an ice cream cone. I'm surprised because he's actually nice to me...

I leave to get the ice cream and when I get back to the window he's holding up a 5-dollar bill.

'Duuude, look what I just found on the ground!'

'That's awesome, wish I had that luck,' as my shoulders sag a little closer to the ground.

'Hey, how bout you take it? Ya probably work harder than I do anyway.'

I look to see if anyone is watching me, quickly snatch the cash, and discretely put it in my pocket. I don't think I was allowed to do that." — u/purloin_a_coin

"This isn't really weird but I felt completely awful.

I used to work at Tim Hortons, and when I had to work on the window I would barely ever look out it if it was crazy busy. I'm 6'2". For me to look out of the window, I basically have to double over and look through it.

Anyways, one time I was really distracted, and I took the person's money and didn't look and handed the coffee out the window and let go when I felt a hand grab the cup. Immediately, I heard, 'Oh [no]!' So I look out the window and the guy has nubs for fingers and is waving his hand back and forth trying to get control of the cup enough to bring it into his car. I apologize profusely, and he leaves after a couple minutes.

I had some old guy and his granddaughters around Christmas singing Christmas carols beside the speaker because we were lined up and really busy. He must not've known the speaker still picks up noise while the person is idling there, but it put a smile on all the worker's faces." — u/KINGKONinG

"When I was in high school I worked at a burger joint. At first, they'd always put me on the fryer, and that sucked. The guy who supervised me was Joe. Joe was pretty much always yelling at me for something. Way above and beyond new-guy stuff... Anyways...

One day, they take me off that fryer and put me on the window. Start my shift, and it is going good. Then, near the end of the night, this one ole boy rolls back around the drive-thru. I open the window, and he looks me dead in the eye, and says, 'My tots aren't done.' AND THROWS THE BAG AT ME. Guess who's on the fryer? JOE. So, we cooked the guy some more tots, and Joe somehow blamed it on me. I worked there like five months. Did not have much fun. Good shakes, though." — u/snippysnapsnapparoo

"I was working the drive-thru teller window at the bank one day. Then a guy pulls up with a fully clothed blow-up doll in the passenger seat. "She" was all buckled up and everything. I looked at "her," and then at him, and he creepily said, 'It's so I can use the carpool lanes.'" — u/katiebug0313

"Had a man and woman come through and order. They get to the window, and he falls asleep in the 60 seconds he is sitting there. The lady wakes him up, and he pays. Then before we could hand his food out to him, we noticed his truck started to roll. I get to the window in time to see the truck scraping the building. He got onto the highway, woke up, and floored it. He came back 30 minutes later and ordered something completely different. He didn't know that he had been by KFC already. Manager called cops, and we kept him in the drive-thru until they got there." — u/CindyLou_Who

"Worked at a Starbucks through high school and part of university. We were supposed to chat up the patrons in the drive-thru to make their wait a little more bearable.

Anyway... there was this one time a couple came through in a big pickup truck. I ask how their day has been, and the female responds with, 'I was just released from the hospital.'

I say, 'Good to hear you are all better,' and she then proceeds to tell me she was in a car accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. My jaw hits the floor, and I am speechless. I hand them their drinks, wish them off, and watch as the wheelchair speeds off in the back of the truck. I'll never forget that encounter. That made me feel [terrible]." — anonymous

"I worked at McDonald's for almost two years. The strangest incident would have to be the kid who attempted to pay me in Pokémon cards by explaining how much each [one] was worth on eBay. When I explained to him that his cards could not be used as currency, he became upset, accused me of being a 'dirty Yu-Gi-Oh! fan' and drove off, leaving me confused with both his cards and his food." — u/kittenrageparty

"I worked at McDonald's for two years, and the strangest thing that happened was when a bunch of teenage boys came through the drive-thru in a minivan and ordered an ice cream cone. When they pulled up to my window (it was night, so we were down to one window taking money and handing out food), a guy that was laying on the top of the minivan grabbed the cone by the ice cream, and they drove off. They proceeded to come back through the drive-thru and ask if one of them had left a wallet inside." — u/Painting_Flowers

"I only worked at McDonald's for three months...

Valentines Day. Who brings their date to McDonald's? Well, mostly high-schoolers. It was also next to a movie theater so whatever. Then, this 50-year-old woman comes in by herself. Orders two meals while repeatedly mentioning that her husband will be here any minute. He never came; I'm sure he never existed. Sad.

Nice, quiet, polite kid came about 3 times a week. Always brought his massive German Shepherd in the back. I made sure he got some burgers. :)

Got screamed at by an old guy because I didn't give him Splenda on the side. SCREAMED at.

Another older woman screaming at me because her Coke wasn't a dollar (that was the deal back then, but not when it was a part of a meal). Explain this, but she's still flapping around yelling and screaming. I wasn't even mad, poker face asked her, 'Why are you seriously yelling at me over 79¢?' Gives me the nastiest smile: 'I'd like to see your manager.' They gave it to her.

Every day I would come home with at least one story like that. I mean every single day. And this was the 'nicest' McDonald's in the city." — u/ScalsThePenguin

"I had a dude driving without arms come through my line at Taco Bell, driving a modified Gran Prix with his feet. It appeared to be a defect he was born with. He was even able to count out change and hand it to me with his toes!! I was 18 at the time, and it taught me that the only limits we have are the ones we place on ourselves. Inspiring." — u/BigFish_TX

"A couple years ago, I worked at a drive-thru and this guy came around to pay. When he got there, he asked, 'Hey, did I say I wanted extra pickles on that? Because I want extra pickles on that.' I informed him that his burger was already made and ready to go but offered to have a new one fixed up with a satisfactory amount of pickles. The man paused then had a look of realization. He looked up and said, 'Don't worry about it! Now that I think about it, I think I might have some extra ones right here.' This valued customer then proceeded to open up his glove compartment and pull out a giant jar of sliced pickles. It was weird." — u/payperduckk

"I was once working drive-thru orders and this lady came up the speaker, I greeted her and then told her to order whenever she was ready. She said that she wasn't going to order anything and that she just needed someone to talk to. The customer is always right, so I talked with her about how my day was going and then she told me she has herpes. I was dumbstruck, this lady probably just found out she had herpes and the only one she could talk to was the drive-thru guy? I was floored and talked to her for a few minutes and then she said that she had better go — unlike the herpes she had. Never saw her face or even her car. I kinda wish I had her come to my window." — u/goldfishflave

"I remember working the drive-thru quite frequently when I was 16 working at McDonald's. This one time a guy pulled up in an old dirty car. He wanted to pay for his order in change and yelled at me to hold my hand out. I held my hand out the window for the change. He then screamed at me, 'I told you to hold your hand out!' So I held it out further and kind of had a bewildered look on my face because I didn't understand what I was doing wrong. He then sneered 'don't look at me, what is your problem, stop looking at me like that!'

It was just then my manager happened to walk into the back booth, and the guy I noticed him. He said, 'Is that your manager? I nodded, and he demanded to talk to him. The manager walked up to the window, [and] the guy immediately starts screaming at the manager, 'You need to fire [her]. Stop looking at me like that! She is the rudest person I have ever met! I said stop looking at me like that.' I'm not even sneering at the guy. I'm actually becoming a little traumatized at this point because I don't know what I did. I just told him his total and tried to reach for his change and after that, I don't know.

My manager cashed out the order and told him to go to the next window. I could still hear him screaming at the second window about me. My manager screamed back at him to please leave or he's calling the police and to never come back. At that point, I asked to be let on break because my 16-year-old self could not handle all that verbal abuse and needed 10 minutes to go to the back and cry." — u/I_eat_ur_face

"6:00 a.m. working the Starbucks drive-thru a few 4/20s ago. Two guys in their early 20s came by and got frappuccinos. When they pulled up to the window to pay, I saw the passenger literally eating coleslaw out of a BUCKET." — u/marplies

"Not while working the window, but one Fourth of July my then-girlfriend and I were at the drive-thru at McDonald's, and the guy working the window expressed his disappointment that he wasn't able to see the city fireworks. We felt bad for him, and we gave him a few boxes of sparklers we had so he could light them up after work.

The guy was ecstatic, and his nearby coworkers were happy as well, presumably all planning to burn the sparklers with him. Suddenly, the manager comes over, pushes through the workers, and in a forced voice of politeness asked us what was going on. When we told him we felt bad for his workers and gave them some fireworks, he said, 'Uh-huh' in a tone suggesting we were full of it. Then he proceeded to yell at his crew like they were a bunch of little kids who had gotten into a stranger's van for a promise of candy later.

I don't know how long we sat there, stunned, as the manager tore them all new ones. It wasn't like he said anything coherent, just swears and obscenities with nothing to be picked out as to why this had set him off. We finally drove off after a minute or two, and both of us were quite convinced our attempt to be nice was getting them all fired. We never saw any of that crew again when we went back, so maybe we did." — u/BenevolentNihilist

"Back when they mattered, Brian from the Backstreet Boys came through a Wendy's drive-thru in Roswell, GA. I was an assistant manager and 19 and promptly lost my [cool]. I did get an autograph and a copy of his order. His family loves the former Big Bacon classics and Spicy Chicken sandwiches." — u/CherryDaBomb

"Ok there's too many bad-guy stories on here, so how about some good-guy ones? I worked for McDonald's for 3 years and here are a few of my favorites:

We had Elvis as a regular. Well, technically an Elvis impersonator, but still. He just came through the drive-thru in the morning about once a week and ordered an iced coffee. I noticed he happened to look sorta like Elvis but didn't say anything until one time he paid with a credit card — and I saw the name Elvis on there. I asked him, and apparently he had had his name legally changed to Elvis. Even had it on his driver's license." — u/Moonpaw

"And then there was Batman. I [kid] you not, he had the outfit, a black corvette (with a strobe light on top), and BATMAN as the license plate number! Know what he ordered? A single bottle of water. Then he gave me $20 and said to use the change to pay for whoever was behind him. He came through multiple times, and once had a girl dressed as Catwoman (comic book Catwoman, not movie Catwoman, thank god) in the passenger seat. He always did the same thing. Once that $20 managed to cover four other cars' worth of food, and I got to tell them all that their order had been paid for by Batman. Fun times. And damn his car was cool." — u/Moonpaw

"Worked at Popeyes while in high school. With ten minutes till closing one Friday night, a customer pulled up and ordered a rather large amount of chicken and sides.

In case you are wondering, they try to time these things out based on previous sales so we: a) did not have enough chicken to fill the order, and b) did not have enough side items to fill the order.

So I tell the guy it will be almost 20 minutes to get his order together because we would have to drop a chicken in the fryer. Dude says that's cool and pulls around after I give him the total. I am not happy about the event since the cook has left for the night, so I have to fry the chicken, re-clean the frying station, open new side items bags/ingredients, and update the cook's inventory sheet (since he already left). Plus, I will be late, but whatever, it's a job.

Dude comes to the drive-thru window, I slide the window back, and I tell him his total. Guy never turns his head towards me, keeps his eyes straight ahead, and proceeds to throw a wad of crumpled-up cash and coins at my face. The snowball of dirty change hits me straight in the face when I hear him say 'catch.' I stand there stunned while the currency falls to the floor and watch in disbelief as he (still looking straight ahead out his windshield) pulls the switch to roll up his window. Guy never looks at me.

Since it was almost closing time, I already counted my drawer and now I am going to have to bend over [and] pick up the bills and coins to ensure my register amount is correct. Well, some of the dimes, nickles, and quarters rolled underneath the tables, which sucked. Why? Because the floors still had the cleaning solvent put down since everyone was in clean-up mode when this happened.

So I'm a senior in high school, working Friday night, got hit in the face with balls of coins and cash, and now my pant knees are going to be wet the whole way home since this guy decided to just fling money at me.

20 minutes go by, and I start to bag his order. I put the chicken box in, I put the mashed potato, dirty rice, and mac and cheese containers in, I pull back the sealing lids on top of the side items just slightly, and I approach the drive-thru window.

Now the guy rolls his window down when I slide back the drive-thru window and looks at me with a smile on his face because he is about to get his order. I sling the bag of fried chicken and side items as hard as could out my window, through his window, and the bag explodes against his passenger side window. Mashed potatoes, dirty rice, and mac and cheese are everywhere. I yelled 'catch' when I did it." — u/sharkaccident

"Was working the late-night shift at a McDonald's once, and some guys wearing horse masks and 'gangster' bandanas drove through at roughly 4:00 a.m. and asked specifically for multiple My Little Pony toys (not meals, only the toys). Quit later that week." — u/NateJay1415

"A friend of mine works at a Dairy Queen and was handing out an ice cream cone and the customer asks, 'Do you believe in unicorns?' And my friend is just standing there awkwardly and the guy puts his ice cream directly onto his forehead and yells 'BELIIIEEEEVE' and drives off." — u/TheRealBoogaard

"My first real job in high school was at a very loosely managed Taco Bell where one of the supervisors had been fired recently. While I was working the overnight shift, he came through the drive-thru, pointed a gun at me, and robbed me of all of my Cinnamon Twists. He took the whole pan of Cinnamon Twists. Right through his car window. We cooked a new batch. Didn't even call the cops. Nightshift is weird." — u/southseattle77

"YES! A chance to tell this story!

My close friend (we'll call him 'Genius') works at a McDonald's and was training a new girl on the drive-thru, who was somewhat lacking in the height department. Genius had upturned a chip pan vat and had her stand on that so she was able to reach customers and take payment.

After an hour or two, she needed her toilet break, so Genius decided he wanted to try this new-found height system for himself. His first customer was a very elderly lady. Her car gingerly made its way round the corner to the window, and her order for a coffee was barely audible. However, Genius remembered his customer service teachings and after a few attempts successfully asked for payment.

Just as the trainee girl was making her way back to the booth, she watched as Genius reached out to take the coins offered. The vat skid out from underneath his foot and her superior ended up bent backwards like a paperclip between granny's car and his cash till, where only his feet remained.

Genius had to clamber down and make his way back through the customer entrance, much to the surprise of his manager who thought he was still stationed in Window 1.

I hope that my close friend holds the title as the only employee to ever fall out of a McDonald's window. Genius." — u/DanglyDan

"I saw a customer with a pet monkey. A pet monkey in the drive-thru of a North Texas McDonald's. That's not even the weird part, I asked the woman if it was real. Her reply? 'It's a robot.' She drove up to the next window while my mind was all kinds of [crazy]." — u/Spiraticus

"I was a manager at Little Caesars in high school and had to work on Halloween, which turns out to be one of our busiest days. After a long day, it is about 10:00-11:00 p.m. and we are getting ready to start closing, so me and another guy go out to smoke a cigarette when a cop pulls up. I looked pretty young to be smoking, but I was 18 and thought the cop was going to do an ID check on me. When he gets out, he comes over to us and asked if we have seen a banana running around the shopping center. Confused, me and my coworker kind of look at each other and say no, and he proceeds to tell us some guy is running around dressed as a banana flashing people. He told us if we saw him that we should rough him up a little bit before calling." — u/Psychic_Jester

"The guy starts with 'you will wait until I am ready!' He then polls his family of four and each takes their dear sweet time customizing every meal. He paid with an equal deliberateness.

At the pickup window, he decided he had changed his mind and wanted something else. The manager did a good job of recalculating his order quickly on the fly and informed him it would be an additional few dollars. The guy became outraged.

The manager made a few attempts to go over it, but at this point, this one family had managed to back them up horribly. He politely asked the man to pull forward and he'll straighten it out. The man refused.

Exacerbated and starting to get people coming in complaining about the wait, he told the man he couldn't serve him and tried to give him a full refund. Try is the operable word because the man refused to accept his money back. He sat in the drive-thru with his arms folded across his chest. Finally, now completely frustrated, the manager drops the money in his lap and tells him he'll call the police if he doesn't move.

The guy comes into the restaurant accusing the manager of throwing the money in his face and claiming it was assault.

A few days later, we get a lawsuit." — u/Rmanager

"I got yelled at by a customer for taking a sip of water once. I had a bottle of water near my register because it was hot out, but I was trying to only drink from it when there wasn't a car at the window. One woman happened to pull up before I was done and concluded that since I was drinking from my own personal bottle, I was probably drinking from all of the customers' fountain drinks too. She tried pretty hard to get me written up/fired but only succeeded in getting banned from the store." — u/flj7

"This might get buried but here it goes.

When I was working at a McDonald's in high school, apparently a fad went around where people would go through and order a drink and then throw it back into the window. Well, one time someone tried it but forgot to take the lid off. When he threw it at me, I instinctively volleyball-spiked it back towards his car. The cup hit the window and opened up and spilled all over this guy's car — I'm talking his lap, his seat, all of his stuff was soaked. He looks down and looks back at me and goes, 'Damn, you got me good.' And then drove off." — u/kingwombat12

"I worked at McDonald's for a year in high school, usually the Saturday/Sunday morning shifts. One Sunday, at about noon or one, this woman comes through the drive-thru, orders her food, and pulls up to the window to pay. She fumbles around with change for about a minute, and as she finally hands me the money, she starts talking about how she's 'poor in money but rich in The Lord Jesus Christ,' or something like that. She asks me if I go to church often; I say yes (lying). As I go to hand her the receipt, she grabs my hand and looks into my eyes and says, 'Jesus loves you, and he's coming to see you soon. He'll be here any day now.' And then she drives off to the next window while I just stand there like what just happened." — u/charlieraybc

"Working at Wendy's late night [and] had a guy pound on the window after we closed. As I went to tell him we were closed, he grasped his chest and collapsed in the drive-thru lane. We called 911, ambulance came and got him, turns out he had a heart attack and we probably saved his life by calling 911 immediately. He came in a week later and thanked us with pizza and gift cards to Best Buy ($20x3)." — u/kahnwolf

"Wendy's worker here. We had this one regular customer that always came in with her child, and she was always a real pain. I was taking her change and giving her the food she ordered. She was looking through her food and then she realized that she got apples instead of fries with her kid's meal. For some reason, she thought it was appropriate to take out each apple and whip them at me... Her child (maybe 6) cried the whole time." — anonymous

"Here are a few weird and otherwise noteworthy encounters:

A car came through backwards. As in, reversing through the drive-thru, and the passenger did the talking.

Quite late at night, I think it was about 11:30 p.m., these two teenage guys pull up in what is obviously their dad's Porsche, a convertible with the roof down. They've got the music up as loud as it goes, I can hear it from the window when they're at the speaker box without even using my headset, and on the headset, it's just about deafening me. Luckily all they want is a cheeseburger, so they come around, pay, and get their cheeseburger, all without turning the music down. Driver was also shirtless. Then a couple of minutes later, they come around again for a small Coke.

On Christmas Eve we closed at 10:00 p.m. (drive-thru is normally 24/7), put up signs and turned the outside lights off and everything. Those of us that were working stayed until midnight, cleaning the whole place and whatnot, and for the entire two hours, there were still cars coming up and waiting to be served. The screens weren't even on or anything, although we had left the speakers on so we could talk to them. Eventually, we stopped telling people we were closed and let them figure it out themselves. At midnight when we all left, there was still a queue of cars waiting.

There was this woman that came through at least once a day, often twice, for a coffee frappé. We ended up quite good friends through our brief meetings, she would often wave to me when she was still two cars back from my window. Not really a weird encounter, but she always brightened my day :)

A middle-aged woman and two teenage girls a bit younger than me (I was 17 at the time) pull up, all barely containing fits of giggles. The woman says to me, 'Someone told me you sound like an owl.' I reply, 'An owl?' All three of their faces drop and one of the girls says, 'Oh. You were supposed to say 'who?'

Old guy on a mobility scooter comes up and orders a coffee. We wouldn't normally serve him in the drive-thru, but it was quiet so we let him come around." — u/KingGumboot

"I was a shift manager at Taco Bell in high school. My most memorable moment was when I was working the drive-thru window. Some guys ordered some tacos or whatever, and when they pulled up, I noticed they were a few feet back from the window (they didn't pull far enough forward).

I opened the window to say something and immediately get drenched in windshield-wiper fluid. These jackals rotated their nozzles for this and ensured they were properly lined up. They were. I threw a large pop at them as they were peeling out, which landed inside the window. I think I won.

Another: My friend was trying to impress a girl by going through my drive-thru to score some free food. I wasn't working the window, but was slopping the food together, but knew he was coming up since I heard him on the speaker. I walk up to hand the drive-thru worker the food for the car in front of him, when she gets rear-ended by my buddy." — u/TheNightOwl

"I had a guy pass out while waiting for his food. We cooked burgers to order so it wasn't a speedy drive-thru. Cops came after we tried to wake him up with no success. Cop shook him awake eventually. 'There's no problem here, officer.' 'Actually, ya. Ya there is. Step out of the car please, sir.'"— anonymous