Sacramento McDonald's blasts bagpipe music to chase homeless away, angers neighbors

A 24-hour McDonald's in Midtown Sacramento has been playing bagpipe music on loudspeakers to drive the homeless away. The nearly nonstop music has been making life miserable for neighbors. A 24-hour McDonald's in Midtown Sacramento has been playing bagpipe music on loudspeakers to drive the homeless away. The nearly nonstop music has been making life miserable for neighbors. Photo: Google Street View Photo: Google Street View Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Sacramento McDonald's blasts bagpipe music to chase homeless away, angers neighbors 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A 24-hour McDonald's in Sacramento has been playing bagpipe music outside to drive the homeless away, and the neighbors aren't loving it.

Arnold Phillips, who lives across the street from the fast-food restaurant at Broadway and 24th, told CBS13 that the mournful strains of Scottish tunes drone on at all hours. For a while it was 24/7 "Braveheart" soundtrack.

"It actually penetrates through the walls. We can hear it. I’m trying to watch TV or whatever and it’s going through that," he said.

Phillips' neighbor Nate Dewitt, who was wearing protective over-the-head ear muffs while using his leaf blower, told the station he could still hear the bagpipe music through the muffs when he turned off the blower.

CBS13 said it asked three managers about the bagpipe tunes blaring from loudspeakers and they replied, "What bagpipes?"

The weaponized music doesn't seem to be working, as homeless individuals are reportedly still frequenting the area.

In 2016, a Burger King at Eighth and Market streets in San Francisco tried the same ploy — only with classical music instead of bagpipes — to roust loiters and people sleeping on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. The music was turned down between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Last September, residents of San Francisco's small Clinton Park neighborhood installed "hostile architecture" boulders on a half-block stretch of sidewalk to stop people from sleeping there and to discourage drug dealing. The city removed the large rocks after people kept pushing them into the street.

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The Sacramento neighbors told CBS13 that they have been waiting on McDonald's corporation to respond to their noise complaints. So far there has been nothing but silence.

If McDonald's does indeed love to see you smile, it will have to try harder in this corner of Midtown Sacramento.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate