An employee at an Arkansas McDonald’s was arrested Tuesday night following a dispute with a customer.
Little Rock police received a 911 call around 9:00 PM from a customer at a McDonald’s claiming that an employee had stolen from her and was being verbally aggressive.
The customer, 37 year old Kelly Watts, told police that workers had shorted her a chicken nugget with her order, and when she went up to correct the mistake, the cashier, 18 year old Rasheed Jones, refused to apologize or correct the mistake.
“I didn’t order no five piece McNuggets,” recalled Watts, “I ordered six. I paid for six McNuggets and y’all gave me five!”
Watts said that when she brought it to the attention of Jones, he didn’t appear to care and refused to remedy the problem.
“This (expletive deleted) kid’s gonna stand there and say he saw me eat one. He didn’t (expletive deleted) see nothing! He just didn’t wanna give me my (expletive deleted) money back!”
Jones, who had only recently started working at the establishment, denied any wrongdoing on his part, insisting that Watts did indeed eat the missing nugget.
“I watched her eat the thing right in front of me,” Jones said in a statement to AJnet. “She ate the nugget before she left the counter.”
Jones’s coworkers also supported his version of events. Several other employees told police that they saw Watts eat the chicken nugget before sitting down. Treyvon Denaud, the employee who prepared Watts’s order, stated that he was certain he put six McNuggets into the container.
“I ain’t graduate high school,” Denaud said, “but I can count to six. This (expletive deleted) straight up lying. And she drunk as (expletive deleted) too, I smelled it on her all the way in the back.”
Still, police arrested Jones, citing previous run-ins with law enforcement. Officer Harold Crawford, who arrested Jones after the incident, recounted a previous encounter with Jones several months prior.
“I caught this guy trying to break into a locked car,” Officer Crawford recalled. “Jones tried to say it was his car, he locked the keys inside. He even tried to get me to unlock it for him, he told me he’d show me the registration as soon as I unlocked the door.”
Crawford said that Jones had been detained and the car impounded. It was not clear if the car really belonged to Jones.
Some argue that Crawford’s arrest of Jones over a missing McNugget was heavy-handed and excessive.
“Maybe they did screw up her order,” said Jennifer Garner, who was at the McDonald’s buying a late dinner for her child when Jones was arrested. “But having someone arrested over it? Ridiculous.”
Garner added, “I’m amazed the cops even bothered to come out for this nonsense.”
A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department told reporters that, while the measure seemed excessive, it was standard procedure, and necessary to ensure public safety.
“These things tend to escalate, so we treat calls like this very seriously. [Jones] wasn’t arrested over a chicken nugget. He was very confrontational with Officer Crawford, so we had to bring him in to ensure the safety of Ms. Watts.”
McDonald’s has refused to comment on Jones’s arrest, saying that they were currently carrying out an internal investigation into the incident. However, they reaffirmed their commitment to customer service.
“We’re still trying to determine if our employee was responsible for the incident that occurred in our Little Rock location. If the employee was responsible, they will be disciplined appropriately and according to company standards. McDonald’s prides itself on excellent customer service. Quality is a staple of our restaurants.”
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