Woman's 'horrendous' attack on McDonald's workers in Adelaide
South Australian police are investigating a “disgusting” attack on McDonald’s workers in Adelaide that saw a young woman allegedly spit at the store manager.
A shocking video of the incident inside the city centre franchise on Friday night has gone viral after the footage was posted to the Instagram account Sh*t Adelaide.
“Spare a thought for the poor staff at McDonald’s Hindley Street that have to put up with this,” the caption read.
In the clip, the customer can be seen yelling at staff members while she hurls food orders from behind the counter, including a full cup of drink, at employees.
“He hit me bro, you hit me in the face bro,” she screams before the manager replies, “no I did not".
“Yes, you f***ing did, there is a video you stupid f***k,” the woman says before jumping up against the counter and then appearing to spit at the manager.
The incident inside the store, which is located within Adelaide’s party precinct, comes just a month after the state government introduced tougher penalties for those that assault retail workers.
Under the new laws, the maximum penalty for a basic assault has been raised from two years in prison to five.
While offenders who cause harm will spend seven years behind bars.
'Charming piece of work'
The video sparked outrage from users on Instagram.
“Horrendous behaviour, the poor staff” one person wrote, “no one should have to tolerate this behaviour".
“Sad that people out there act like this to others for simply doing their job,” another said.
"What a charming piece of work," someone else added.
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Others weren’t surprised that it had happened on Hindley Street which they described as "feral". Many were shocked that McDonald’s didn’t employee security guards to protect the store at night.
“[It is] absolutely disgusting that McDonald’s don’t have a security guard at stores like this after 10pm,” one person wrote.
Second video shows what led to attack
A second video has since been posted to the Sh*t Adelaide account of “what preceded the incident".
In the clip, the female customer can be seen on the kitchen side of the counter harassing staff as an employee tells her, “if you stay here I’ll call the police".
The manager of the store can then be heard yelling, “get out, get out, get out,” as he pushes the woman towards the other side of the counter.
She then retaliates, screaming “you wanna f***ing start c**t, you wanna f***ing go c**t,” before she lashes out.
As she punches towards the manager, another employee can be seen standing beside him as the pair try to defend themselves.
McDonalds says staff acted in accordance with proceedures
A witness to the attack commented on the video saying that “staff handled it so well.”
“She came back multiple times and hit multiple staff,” they said. “They locked down the restaurant so she couldn’t enter again until police arrived.”
In a statement to Yahoo News Australia, McDonald's said its employees acted in accordance with emergency response procedures and called police immediately.
"The health and safety of our people and customers is our top priority," a spokesperson said.
"Anti-social behaviour is not tolerated in our restaurants and we expect our people to be treated with respect at all times.
"We will always do our best for our customers, but we won't accept abuse, intimidation, threats or violence towards our employees."
McDonald's added that it is continuing to "support all employees involved" in the incident and is assisting police with their investigation.
Safety measures in place at the restaurant will also be reviewed.
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