A man with a hearing impairment was turned away at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Columbus, Nebraska early last month and the video of the incident has gone viral.
“You can leave or I’m going to call the police,” a worker can be heard telling Jonathan Ramos around 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
Ramos however cannot hear the worker. He lost his hearing after a case of chicken pox as a small boy.
Ramos, who had ordered from that particular McDonald’s before, usually just types his order on his phone and shows it to the worker at the drive-thru window.
On this particular occasion, however, the workers at the drive-thru window ignored Ramos and continued to do so even with him honking his car horn.
According to a WOWT News report, the owners of the McDonald’s restaurant said the worker’s weren’t ignoring Ramos, but left to find a pen and paper.
On the video a worker can be seen showing a note to Ramos that read “You need to leave or we will call the police.”
The employees of the McDonald’s eventually did call police and say that Ramos was disrupting the drive-thru line for nine minutes by honking his horn and refusing to move further before turning on his own recording.
The owners of the McDonald’s told WOWT News the incident was just a misunderstanding and while Ramos agrees this might be correct, he intends to sue the restaurant for discrimination explaining there’s no excuse for the way he was treated.
The McDonald’s now keeps a pen and paper on hand at the drive-thru window.