KEY LARGO, Fla. – A worker at a South Florida McDonald’s is facing three felony charges after sheriff’s deputies said she attacked customers during a drive-thru dispute over the weekend.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, it all happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday at the Golden Arches’ location at 100970 Overseas Highway on Key Largo.
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Authorities said the worker, Emmonie Lashawn King, 19, of Homestead, called the sheriff’s office to report that a group of customers at the drive-thru were “upset that employees were taking too long to make their food” and admitted to slapping a cellphone out of their hands during the dispute.
King told deputies that she told the “belligerent” customers, all from Aventura, that she wasn’t able to get them their food on time because she only had two workers in the fast food restaurant, an arrest report states.
She told deputies that the customers ignored her instructions to turn their Toyota around so employees could attend to other customers and that they started sticking their middle fingers at another worker, it states.
Deputies said she claimed that one of the passengers hit her with a door and she slapped the cellphone out of their hands for doing so.
But authorities said the passengers’ video of the incident told a different story.
“Emmonie is seen approaching the rear of the vehicle as the driver...repeatedly apologizes to Emmonie,” MCSO Deputy Mario Marin wrote. “Emmonie is seen opening the door to the black Toyota and telling the passengers to ‘step out here imma beat your a--.’”
Marin wrote that the back seat passenger is seen in the video “attempting to close the vehicle door while asking Emmonie to ‘go out,’ however, Emmonie prevents her from doing so by forcefully holding the door open.”
Deputies said King noticed a passenger was recording and “suddenly lunged into the vehicle” and grabbed a phone out of her hand “after a brief struggle.”
“The video keeps recording as Emmonie appears to have possession of the cell phone as she walks away while stating ‘you’re not gonna record me,’” Marin wrote.
Another video shows an employee separating King from the customers, authorities said.
Deputies arrested King on two counts of burglary with assault or battery and one count of robbery by sudden snatching.
Jail records show she was released from MCSO’s Plantation Key jail facility on a $20,000 bond Sunday evening.