Craig Brown, 46, was visiting his local McDonald's in Blackpole, Worcester, England, and ordered a burger, two chicken sandwiches, and some hot chocolate. The staff, unaware of his Bell's palsy, thought he was drunk or drugged, and called the police on him.
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Brown, understandably, was in shock as he was approached by six different police officers in the early morning of Sunday. "It was a bit of an ordeal really, it shocked me when I saw the police arrive with their blue lights on," said Brown, according to Worcester News. "I saw one van then two others arrived. It was a shocking experience. I didn't think they'd be coming for me."
After arriving at McDonald's at 1 a.m. and placing his order, he waited for several minutes for his order to be delivered. He even jokingly said to the workers if he needed to book a hotel given the long wait. "I'm not a restless sort of guy," said Brown. "But there comes a point when you get past the intercom when you've ordered your food and you're waiting for 40 minutes."
After he received his hot chocolate, workers instructed him to wait in the parking lot. According to the workers, their screens had gone off. This, however, sounded like a like to Brown. Soon afterward, three different police vehicles approached him. The McDonald's workers had mistaken his Bell's palsy for him being drunk or being under the influence of drugs.
"I wasn't slurring my words, I wasn't drunk. You can tell straight away when someone is on drugs, and that wasn't anything like me," said Brown. "I was shocked and in disbelief really when they accused me of being drunk and taking drugs."
A Condition, Mistaken
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, Bell's palsy is a sudden episode of muscle weakness or paralysis. Brown was diagnosed with it a couple of years ago, and it might have been what McDonald's workers mistook for him being drunk.
"Maybe my face was dropped on one side, I don't know. Maybe that was the cause but it's still wrong," said Brown. Police made Brown take a breathalyzer test which, of course, read that he hadn't drunk any alcohol whatsoever.
The cherry on top is that, after finishing with the police, the McDonald's workers delivered Brown's food. Brown described the food as being "stone cold". "They didn't offer me a replacement meal or anything."
The whole ordeal was completely unnecessary at the end of the day, but Brown still wonders why it took six officers to take care of what seemed to be a "drunk" person. An inoffensive person, actually. "It was intimidating - it doesn't take three vans and six officers," said Brown. "I don't know what right McDonald's has to call the cops."
