By Kim Hyun-bin
Video footage taken at a McDonald's drive-thru has stirred public outrage as a customer is shown throwing food at a female worker.
The video clip was first uploaded to an online community Tuesday, titled “The incident at a McDonald's drive-thru.” It was posted by the driver of a car in line behind the customer at a McDonald's drive-thru in Ulsan on Sunday, whose dash cam captured the scene on video.
“I was waiting at the McDonald's drive-thru, and the driver in front of me was talking with the part-time worker and soon after threw the meal bag at the worker and left,” the writer wrote in the video description.
“My wife and I were at a loss and the worker was crying. Mistakes in orders can happen when ordering from a drive-thru, and if that is the case, the customer should have told the employees and fixed it. The incident was shocking and way out of line.”
He again wrote that he thought it would be better for the part-timer herself to contact police, so he saved the footage in a portable memory device and handed it over to the store manager.
Regarding the incident, the manager filed a complaint with police against the customer for assault. The manager told Ulsan Jungbu Police that the customer threw the food and cursed at the worker. The police questioned the manager and the worker, and will soon question the customer.
An official at McDonald's Korea said they would take every necessary measure to have the worker get an apology. They said there was no mistake in the order.
The video went viral quickly, reaching over 200,000 views as of Wednesday. And the public has expressed outrage over the driver's action.
“Even though it was the employee's mistake, it doesn't make it right to throw food in a person's face,” an internet user wrote.
Under the criminal law, throwing an object at a person is assault.
There have been endless abuse cases by customers against employees in the country.
Last December, a man called on the supervisor of a department store in Seoul to complain about an employee's service. When the supervisor arrived, the customer threw three stacks of 50,000 won bills at her. The customer was indicted for assault, and a local court fined him 3 million won on Oct. 29.
In July, a woman grabbed two employees by the hair and threw cosmetic products at them in a shop at a department store in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. She made the disturbance claiming she had skin problems after using the cosmetics she had bought there.