Woman reports catching COVID after McDonald’s worker spits in drink, Nevada cops say
A former McDonald’s employee in Nevada is accused of spitting in a customer’s iced coffee in 2020 after it was caught on video surveillance, police records show.
The customer reported catching COVID-19 three to five days after the incident, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrest warrant signed in late April. Days later, her children, ages 2 and 5, also caught the virus.
”I felt violated! I felt absolutely violated and I had a concern about what you could potentially get from ingesting someone’s spit,” the customer told KTNV-TV in May 2021.
McClatchy News’ request for comment to McDonald’s was not returned by time of publication.
The former employee was arrested Monday, July 4, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She is facing a felony count of poisoning or adulterating food, water or medicine.
The customer visited a McDonald’s drive-thru in Las Vegas on Dec. 22, 2020, and ordered an iced coffee, milkshake and fries, according to the arrest warrant. While ordering, the woman said the employee became rude and she asked to speak to a manager.
A male voice came on to the intercom and handled the rest of her order, the arrest warrant says. She then got her fries and milkshake “right away” but had to wait longer for her iced coffee.
“Once she was home and drinking her iced coffee she got to the bottom of the drink and sucked up mucus with the straw,” the warrant says.
The woman said she called the McDonald’s and explained to the general manager what had happened, according to the warrant. The manager asked that the woman bring the spit to the restaurant.
The woman, who also took pictures, brought in the requested item, the arrest warrant says. The general manager, however, told the woman she was “too busy to check the cameras” but assured her that “an employee wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that with cameras everywhere.”
About 10 days after she and her family contracted COVID-19, the customer provided a statement to McDonald’s insurance provider, American Family Insurance, the warrant says. In January 2021, the insurance company told the woman “the employee was caught on camera spitting in (her) drink and then also admitted to spitting in her drink.”
McClatchy News’ request for comment from American Family Insurance was not returned by time of publication.
Police, who began investigating the case in March 2021, were able to obtain the surveillance video, where the employee can be seen “walking from the drive-through window area, towards the front counter, and as she is walking, she pulls her mask down from over her mouth and spits into the plastic cup,” according to the arrest warrant.
The worker then filled the cup with ice and what appeared to be coffee, the warrant says.
As the customer found more than “mere saliva” that “could transmit communicable diseases especially Covid-19,” there was probable cause to charge the former employee with adulterated food, the warrant said.
The former McDonald’s employee posted $5,000 bail on Tuesday, July 5, according to KLAS-TV.
This story was originally published July 7, 2022 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Woman reports catching COVID after McDonald’s worker spits in drink, Nevada cops say."
