In a viral video, TikToker Aubrie (@aubriecan) shares why she does not trust anyone to handle her food.
“Here is why I will never 100% fully trust restaurant takeout, restaurant food, fast food, whatever it is, I will never 100% trust it,” she says.
She says she ordered a burger and fries from her usual spot and explains that this restaurant typically serves undercooked and floppy fries. She says she decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I called the restaurant tonight and said, ‘Hey, I just put in an order. I just wanna let you know that the fries usually come undercooked and soggy.’ So do you mind if you could, like, cook them a little bit longer?” she recalls asking.
She says the restaurant worker told her they would let the kitchen know. When her order arrived, she says her burger was great, and her fries were crispy. Yet, the ketchup left her curious.
“Everything’s great. But the ketchup is very watery. Very watery. And I was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ Closed it. Threw it away. OK,” she shares.
The Burger King story
She goes on to explain that an experience with a Burger King worker always has her suspicious of restaurant food and why she didn’t trust her meal after seeing the watery ketchup.
“When I was in high school, I had a friend, let’s call her Jane. She worked at Burger King. And her boyfriend Alex also worked at Burger King,” she shares.
She continues, “Alex dated this other girl, Stephanie. And Alex fucking hated Stephanie. When they broke up. They had a bad breakup.”
One day, Stephanie was a customer at the Burger King that Alex worked at.
“You know what I did to her burger when she ordered a burger?” Aubrie recalls Alex telling her. “I picked a [expletive] booger, and I put it in her burger, and then I touched my sweaty [expletive] and continued to make her burger.”
According to Aubrie, Alex gave Stephanie the “contaminated” burger, and she went on her “merry way.”
Aubrie stresses that the story changed everything for her. “I can’t remember the last time I had fast food. … Any time I see something that doesn’t look right, I don’t eat it because that [expletive] story always pops up in my head.”
She warns viewers, “So just be careful with what you’re eating and who you piss off because things could go bad.”
@aubriecan 😣😣😣
♬ original sound – Aubrie
Food service workers weigh in
Her viral video has over 130,000 views and hundreds of comments. Many food service industry workers shared similar stories.
“Back in HS, I used to work a burger stand and I knew a guy that spit in the mayonnaise because he hated when people ordered their burgers with mayonnaise instead of mustard,” one viewer commented.
Another viewer shared, “I had a chef try to make me serve pasta that had a maggot on it. He picked it off and yelled at me and told me to serve it.”
Some viewers stressed that these anecdotes are the reasons why you should be nice to your servers.
“This is why you are ALWAYS nice to your servers. They hold more power than you even realize,” one viewer shared.
A lot of food service workers who commented on this Reddit post, however, claimed messing with a customer’s food is one line they would never cross.
“No matter how angry I am at a customer I will never taint the food,” one shared.
According to outdated research by Baylor University and the University of Houston, a very small percentage of food service workers have fessed up to contaminating customers’ food, according to Men’s Health.
The film ‘Waiting’
Many viewers also reference the 2005 film Waiting… a comedy following staffers at the restaurant Shenaniganz, who engage in various pranks and games.
The servers in the film have a cardinal rule, “Don’t [expletive] with people that handle your food.” And whenever that rule is broken, they mess with a costumers food.
“I never treated food service poorly before but after watching the movie waiting made sure I NEVER say anything terrible to them,” one viewer shared.
Another viewer shared, “Please watch ‘Waiting’ and you will NEVER send anything back let alone order anything!”
The Daily Dot reached out to Aubrie via Instagram and to Burger King.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
