Drive-thru workers share the strangest things they've seen inside customer's cars: 'We had to close the restaurant'

Whether you're working retail, food service, or answering phones at a call center, it doesn't take long before you start collecting unhinged stories of stranger customers you've had to deal with on the job. They're the kind of encounters you come home and immediately share with your group chat. 

Drive-thru workers in particular seem to have an especially unique view into people's lives. You're seeing them in their natural habitat, their car, which can be oddly vulnerable to expose the inside of your car to a stranger. And while most customers are just trying to get a burger and move on, every now and then, someone rolls up with a backseat full of chickens or a parrot riding shotgun, and suddenly, it's not just another Tuesday on the job.

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  • In this collection of stories, drive-thru workers share the wildest things they’ve spotted inside people’s cars. From bizarre animal sightings to encounters involving the police, these stories are anything but ordinary. One even ended with the entire restaurant shutting down. 

    If you've ever wondered what drive-thru employees witness behind that little window, get ready, because it's weirder than you think.

  • "Drive-through window workers, what's something memorable you've seen inside a customer's car?"

    OPEN CRIVE THRU
    via Mahavir Shah For Unsplash+
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  • DuskPrincessx Guy pulls up with a parrot on his shoulder, both wearing. matching sunglasses
    via d
  • Ornery-Village6646 My DIL says a lady comes through the Starbucks drive through with a goose named Mr. Waddles
    via d
  • sun_kisser A porcupine meandering on the passenger seat.
    via d
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  • Blue_Moon_Rabbit Sort of related, we used to have a guy come through on horseback every so often, and horses don't trigger the drive through chime, so every time they showed up was a jump-scare.
    via d
  • AdhesiveSeaMonkey As a high school kid working the Burger King drive-thru, my buddy and I realized no one paid attention to our preamble.
    via d
  • So we had some fun with it. "Welcome to the place next to McDonald's. Can we take your order, please?" No one paid attention. So we tried a bunch of things and got all the way to "Can we take your underwear, please?" A
    via d
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  • car of our high school's cheerleaders heard that one, and when they got to the window, they were all and 4 bras got tossed at me. That's a core memory.
    via d
  • DRIVE IN
    via Kübra Arslaner For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.


     

  • Take a meme break! 25 Super-Sized Memes for the Fast Food Workers Fixing the Ice Cream Machine

  • Bydandii Not sure if this qualifies... as it doesn't involve "seeing anything".
    via d
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  • Late night. Pouring rain. Guy gets to window and pays. He had to wait cause his sandwich was being prepared. We get another car, so I ask him to pull ahead and wait. He asks me, "Have you ever done C e, man?" And then
    via d
  • pulls off to the side in parking instead of the wait spot. Great. When his is ready, I have to cross to him - getting soaked. He looks at me from his car, clearly confused. He
    via d
  • rolls down the window and asks what I want. I offer him his food, and he protests. I'm standing there getting drenched, and his buddy starts saying, "Free food, man,
    via d
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  • take it! Take it." I handed it over and ran inside. I always wondered how the rest of their night went.
    via d
  • sixfourtykilo Once had a guy fall asleep in the drive thru.
    via d
  • No one knew what to do and we asked a police officer that had just come in to check it out. After a while the officer, along with the sheriff, finally convinced the guy to pull over. While they
    via d
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  • were sitting in the parking lot talking, the man came inside to collect his food and began eating at the counter. He kept going on about how tired he was and seemed apologetic about the whole thing.
    via d
  • He finally left and apparently the cops didn't want him driving, which turned into a huge problem. He literally DRAGGED the officer into the restaurant screaming to call his mom.
    via d
  • Eventually the sheriff came inside and pepper sprayed the guy and that was when we had to close the restaurant. That was also the first time I was ever exposed to pepper spray.
    via d
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  • warrantyvoiderer Garbage filling every nook and cranny except the driver seat right up to the ceiling. You could barely see out the windsheild.
    via d
  • imsadandthatsrad When I worked at Starbucks a woman was eating a ceramic bowl of soup in her lap in the drive through.
    via d
  • SafeReveal I once was holding the bag out the window and when the car pulled up, a macaque grabbed it, took it to the front passenger seat, and started helping itself to the french fries.
    via d
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  • StellaSanti A detached mannequin head. The woman must have noticed the look on my face because she immediately started to explain that her daughter was in beauty school and the mannequin head was for home practice.
    via d
  • Successful_Creme6702 We were getting robbed, after closing, and all the staff were on the floor being held at gunpoint. Including myself.
    via d
  • Then someone we all knew turned up at the drive through window. Kocked on. Realised what was happening and took off on his motorbike.
    via d
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  • Rang the police but also spooked them so they left. They got caught if I remember rightly.
    via d
  • Cherry_zsa That one car with five chihuahuas in baby outfits, sitting like little humans. They even had hats. One was wearing sunglasses.
    via d
  • Rhueless This girl pulls up to order a Starbucks then apologizes. and asks if I can really lean over to pass it to her passenger because she just got a bunch of fingers cut off.
    via d
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  • The priority was Starbucks, then the hospital. In total while working there I served 3 customers who all thought Starbucks was an important pre hospital trip. (Fingers, finger and broken arm)
    via d

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job car work customers strange drive thru restaurant food service comedy workers unhinged funny fast food animals
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