A New York City McDonald’s has started carding customers at the door and forbidding anyone under the age of 20 from entry to crack down on crime.
The Brooklyn-based franchise of the fast-food behemoth took the drastic move this week, after kids wearing ski masks attacked a security guard and broke a glass door.
Amber Bussain, 19, is the manager of the restaurant on Nostrand and Flatbush Avenue and told The New York Post she had to make the change after the incident.
She said: ‘It was a crazy scene’, recalling that every day she works there, some 15 to 20 teens ‘trash the store’.
This includes throwing ice at customers, stealing bags of foods from delivery drivers and even smoking weed.
Police information shows that there has been over 100 calls made to 911 from inside and in front of the establishment every year for the last three years, with 111 being made in 2024.
Sania Bolasingh grew up in the neighborhood and told the Post: ‘If you’re from that area, you know that McDonald’s is horrible.
‘People fight in there, it’s not just kids being kids. People get stabbed, a delivery worker got jumped, he passed out.’
Bolasingh also uploaded a TikTok after going into the restaurant and couldn’t believe what she saw.
In it, she panned the camera around to show what she described as a ‘peaceful’ McDonald’s.
She then approached the door to show the security guard standing holding the door, which had a sign on it.
It read: ‘No one under the age of 20 is allowed in this restaurant without a parent and proper identification.’
Several youngsters could be seen standing outside the establishment, now unable to go inside unless with an adult.
After sharing her clip, social media users applauded the action of the workers and said they would welcome the ID roll out across other chains.
One person said: ‘They need [to] put these in more establishments’.
Another posted: ‘This too local. Those kids always in there fighting.’
One other added: ‘We need this in malls for sure’, with another saying: ‘I need this at all McDonald’s.’
In September 2011, an 18-year-old was shot in the head in broad day light as he was entering the franchise.
Then in 2012 a manager assaulted a 24-year-old woman trying to order after an argument over the food, according to the Post.
The Big Apple is not short of horrific episodes inside McDonald’s, with an axe-wielding man also seen menacing customers in Manhattan in 2022.
Footage of the frenzy showed Michael Palacios threatening customers while swinging the axe, breaking panes of glass and intimidating onlookers, following a verbal disagreement that quickly turned physical.