A Story About Wendy's and How I Maybe Almost Got Shot Today

Today was weird.



The day started off kinda sucky, but no worse than normal. One of my co-workers no-call no-showed to work. That's fine; I got some extra hours. After said work, I decided "Hmm, Wendy's sounds pretty OK right now!" So off I go to the magical land of Crispy Chicken Nuggets and Double Stacks oh-so-juicy.



I pull in, order, and pull up behind the vehicle ahead of me in line. He's at the window pitching a fit about something likely inconsequential and totally not worth yelling at a fast food worker making minimum wage. God, what a jerk.



The woman in the drive-thru hands him a drink, which he declines. He sticks an empty, clear glass half-filled with ice out of his window towards the woman. She declines, and attempts to hand the man some cash, which he in turn declines. Next, a bag of food is handed out of the drive-thru window, which the man accepts, followed by a drink which he also accepts. A moment later it flies out of his window and into the drive-thru. "Wow," I think to myself, "this guy is a real piece of work. Go humanity." He takes off.



Something else has been ejected from the drive-thru window; some sort of bucket filled with ice. I do believe the employees meant for the jerkface to accept the bucket of ice in recompense for the flying iced tea, but alas; he has already exited the drive-thru. I exit my car to retrieve it because, well, I can't very well pull forward while it's in the way now, can I? It would likely become lodged in the undercarriage of my car. Also, they might need that bucket. Pretty sure those cost money.



His SUV stops just before the exit to the restaurant, and he exits his vehicle. Casually, I tell the guy he needs to leave "Dude, get out of here. Don't be an ass."



"WHATCHU SAY?!"



"Dude, get out of here before I call the cops." He gets back in the car.



I casually hand the bucket to the lady in the window.



He gets BACK out of the car and yells something - I can't tell what. "Dude, just get the hell out of here. I have your plate number - leave or I'm gonna call the police!"



"WHATCHU SAY TO ME?!"



"Get out of here before I call the police!" He gets back in the car.



I turn to the lady in the window - "What an ass. This happen often?" She's not terribly amused but chuckles.



Dude gets out of the car again, this time holding a pistol.



"WHATCHU SAY TO ME?!"



"I'm calling the police. I have your plate number and a description of your vehicle." Calm as a cucumber, like, for real. In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't freak out.



He doesn't point the gun at anyone at any time, luckily. He gets in his car and gets the shit out of there. 911 is already up on my screen. They pickup and transfer me to Kalamazoo City.



Lady in the drive-thru is like "your food is on us, dude." I'm all like "That's OK, I'll pay. I'm gonna come inside - the police are probably going to want a statement from me. Also there's people behind me."



Two people have already driven off in a panic; I'm sure because of the gun. Or maybe because the wait for a cheeseburger was ridiculous, I don't know.



I get inside and hand them my debit card. Police answer and I give them what I got. They say an officer is on the way. I see that the woman who was the unfortunate recipient of an iced tea to the chest is thoroughly soaked and not at all amused. I'd have laughed but it didn't seem appropriate, so I laughed anyway.



The police arrive a few moments later; pretty quickly actually. The officer comes inside and takes a statement from myself and the crew. Two police SUVs blaze past the restaurant and the officer remarks that he must have missed something. I'm hoping it's regarding the hothead with a gun and a general dislike of iced tea who brandished a pistol at me a few moments back. The world may never know.



The moral of the story is don't go to Wendy's for lunch. Someone might try to shoot you; and while the food is free, it'll still not be what you ordered.

Reply · Report Post