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57 Funny, Strange, Creepy, And Otherwise Memorable Drive-Thru Stories Shared By People In This Online Community
Drive-thru workers often get a bad rap because their job seems hugely boring. Besides, the many drive-thru horror stories emerging online don't add to the job's appeal. And while any job poses potential health and safety hazards, what drive-thru work isn't is monotonous. As a few threads on AskReddit have indicated, drive-thru workers are a great source to derive some of the most interesting drive-thru stories and unexpected customer-employer encounters.
And while grumpy, sour-faced customers are the usual, it's the strange encounters and sights that get stuck in the memory long after the shift is over. And strange doesn't necessarily mean bad. Actually, many funny stories from the drive-thru are so memorable because they are downright weird and happen entirely out of the blue. On the other hand, creepy drive-thru stories might not make you LOL; however, they will surely make you uncomfortable. And unfortunately, that's a feeling that sticks with us for a long time.
Below, we've compiled some of the best answers from Reddit threads, sharing the most memorable, funny, creepy, or plain weird stories that current or ex- drive-thru employees had to share. (Plus, some customers shared their points of view from the front seats!) Upvote the best stories, and let us know in the comments whether you have a weird or a funny story related to drive-thrus to share!
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ShimmeringIce said:
"One lady came through the McDonald's drive-thru and instead of a golden retriever or lab poking its head up from the back seat of the minivan, there was a pony just chilling, munching on carrots or something. It was a bright spot in my day."
bird1979 replied:
"People use those miniature horses as therapy service animals. Like a seeing-eye dog or dogs for veterans and others with PTSD. I think it would be cool but there would be so much poop!"
"I worked at a Taco Bell back in high school and this obviously very rich guy came by weekly in his convertible, Hawaiin shirt, and a blow-up doll in the passenger seat. One time he had the usual passenger seat one and two in the back, and I asked him what the occasion was. He said, "Fourth of July, duh!"
It was May??"
"I had a regular who would come through and he had a full wolf in the back of his truck. Not like a dog that was wolf-like, but a full-blown fresh-out-of-the-wild wolf. She was really sweet though. She apparently had a brain condition where she didn't really know she was a wolf that had to be aggressive to survive, so he found her and took care of her. I think about her regularly. We would feed her plain Timbits. The best part of working at Tim Horton's in high school."
"Someone in a tiny car had three great Danes and about seven Chihuahuas with them."
balancedroses said:
"A car pulls up, and all 4 people are just completely naked, just casually chilling."
Natesalt replied:
"There are a surprising amount of stories here that involve naked people."
Reddit user said:
"Guy had his parrot on his shoulder. It tried to bite me when I handed him his change."
Leash_Me_Blue replied:
"If the bird's name was Jaques and had laser eyes, I know the guy."
"I saw a drunk person ordering, and he asked for 2 large fries, a chicken sandwich, 4 large salads, and 2 small lemonades. I asked why he needed that much food, and he said it was for the kids in his basement."
"The driver had a comically large dildo in the passenger seat. He'd buckled it in and put a hat on it."
"I worked a drive-through at Arby's and a DEA agent came through in his squad car. When he pulled up to the window and I handed him his food and he thanked me, turned around into the criminal holding area, and screamed "SHUT UP BEFORE I BREAK YOUR NOSE!"
I was clearly mortified. Then he turned back to me and said "just kidding there's nobody back there", laughed, and drove off."
Minty_beard said:
"When I was working at DQ in high school I remember a woman coming through the drive-thru with a shotgun sitting in the passenger seat(riding shotgun if you will). She had 3 teardrop tattoos. Naturally, we made sure her order was correct."
oldgeezerguy replied:
"You better not skimp on those peanut butter cups in my blizzard!"
L_Rayquaza said:
"Either the guy sitting with a dog in his passenger seat and a coyote and a deer chilling in the back, or the woman wearing just a bra, but that one is more traumatizing."
throwaway61369 replied:
"Were the coyote and deer alive?"
L_Rayquaza replied:
"Yeah, from what he said he raised them from when they were young together."
If I had a random coyote in my car, it would be my life's work to find a roadrunner and a giant box with ACME stenciled on the outside.
BoltzTV said:
"I worked at a Tim Hortons and once saw an old lady with like 50 cartons of eggs in her car, I made a joke saying "looks like you could make your own breakfast" and she got real straight-faced and said, "oh honey those aren't eggs". Still have zero clue what else you would store in egg cartons..."
Reddit user replied:
"The fact she said “oh honey” before “those aren’t eggs” makes me feel like they’re something terrible."
Maybe they contain tiny fish for throwing at Drive-Thur employees
NetDork said:
"Someone pulled a gun on my brother because the salsa containers weren't completely full. You can get as many as you want for no extra charge."
Eggsegret replied:
"Damn that person must really love salsa I guess."
stupidsofttees replied:
"Probably loves guns more."
PsyPup said:
"Someone threw a fish at me once. Didn't order anything, just a drive-by fish attack."
BrightFadedDog replied:
"What sort of fish? Like a rancid sardine, or a full salmon that went straight to the bbq?"
PsyPup replied:
"Just a little tiny bait fish, I think they'd been fishing and wanted to show off the biggest fish they'd ever seen."
I would say thank cod it was a little fish, but you said yourself it was bait. Beware the land shark. Unlike sea sharks, they kill FAR more people a year than vending machines and coconuts. But they are still less dangerous than sea bears.
"I worked at Taco Bell a while back, and the most memorable/strangest thing I saw come through the drive-through was an elderly man, probably late 50s or early 60s. He had a large, loaded glass bong buckled in the passenger seat. Told him it smelled good in there and he responded, "It always smells good where I am". What a badass, I'll never forget that."
MomoPeachBear said:
"Only worked drive-through for a year but the weirdest thing I saw was an alpaca in a minivan. They asked at the window if they could order some apple slices for the alpaca. I just gave them two packs on the house."
TotallyWitchin replied:
"I worked with a gal who had llamas and she would transport them by minivan too. Haha."
"Just today I saw a man with easily 60 plushies in his back, and front seat, he was very sweet, very obviously had some mental disability, but was an absolute pleasure to help."
"I was working at a McDonald's drive-through in a small town in Michigan. This truck goes through, pays, and pulls forward to get its meal. Then a chicken jumps out of the back. I yell for the next car in line to stop, but she looks confused and ends up running over the chicken. It's not dead but it's a wreck. She looks at me and we're both in tears. She says she has to and I say "no". She puts it on reverse and backs over the chicken again. Another employee had to get a shovel and scoop up the dead chicken from the drive-thru."
intothepizzaverse said:
"I worked at Domino's and one lady used a hand-crocheted blanket to keep her pizzas warm. Kept the blanket in the front seat and draped it over the boxes. I crochet, so I know how much work went into that blanket..."
JustAFictionNerd replied:
"Are you sure it was specifically for the pizzas? My dad used to keep a blanket in the car in case anyone got cold, but we also at least once used it to cover food."
I have a,Barnsley in car just in case but keeping warm is a good idea.
"NGL the damnedest thing I ever did see working Taco Bell drive-through was a dude with no arms, who gave me exact change with his toes, took his bag between them, and drove away with his feet. Northern WV."
Good for him! Were it me in that state, all I'd do is sit home and feel sorry for myself.
MontgomeryWeiner said:
"I worked at Mcdonald's and saw some pretty odd stuff to be fair. One dude had dyed his mohawk blue, had a parrot, and ordered like it was nothing. Had some other woman just sat there drinking a bottle of vodka at the wheel, at like 11 pm, I couldn’t do anything about it so I just sent her down to the next window."
cryptic-coyote replied:
"Blue Mohawk parrot guy sounds like an anime protagonist."
The driver was drinking vodka from the bottle? Yes you can do something call the police!
"A guy drove through with a live duck riding with him. The duck immediately went for the bag of fries!"
thekoonbear said:
"Does a naked man with bags from Burger King and Taco Bell already count as a “thing”?"
TVStatic417 replied:
"That is the most thing thing to ever be considered a thing."
"On Christmas eve this guy comes through and I'm taking his money when he asks if I want to see his stump. I wasn't really thinking and said sure. The guy opens his car door and reveals that his left leg was amputated from the knee down. Again, without thinking I asked him if he was alright. He said he was, and while closing his door he mentioned that he needed to be careful when getting out because he has fallen on his face before."
"At Starbucks, I had a woman order nothing, pull up to the window, pick up a stack of papers from her passenger seat, and in a pissed-off voice yell “THESE ARE WHAT YOU CALL BILLS!”. She then drove away without saying another word..."
"No fu**ing joke, like 400 birds. Not in cages, but just sitting around. They were all flying around and s**t and he had this plastic thing that kept them inside. S**t was bonkers."
"The couple pulled up to the in-n-out window and the only thing in the car aside from them were 5 or 6 bearded dragons ranging in size from fully grown to maybe 3 inches long."
I love beardies! I had one named Clover when I was little, but unfortunately she got an egg bind and we had to put her down
"My gym teacher, he was drunk. He started eating the tacos at the drive-through window. He was there for over 5 minutes, just eating. I saw him the next day in school, and we both acted as if nothing happened."
"I have a monkey lizard from Starwars, wearing a fedora and tinted glasses, sitting on top of my passenger seat. Definitely got a lot of funny looks at the drive-through."
Monkey lizard…fedora…tinted glasses? It sounds to me like you are confusing “The Sound of Music” with “Star Wars”.
"Technically in the car, but I had someone come through covered in blood."
hondac55 said:
"This girl used to come through with like 3 dogs. I finally asked her, "do you have to feed these beasts?" And she explained that she just walks and grooms them. Well, one day she came through the drive-through with like 15 dogs and she screams through the intercom "MY BUSINESS FINALLY TOOK OFF" and got a bunch of chicken tacos for them. Come to think of it... I think she may have been trying to flirt with me. Damn."
RyeFluff replied:
"I'm just laughing thinking about how happy she must have sounded through the chaos of a car full of that many dogs screaming "MY BUSINESS FINALLY TOOK OFF"."
"Used to work at McDonald’s back in the day. I was training a new girl and told her to hand the man at the window his drink. The window opens, and I notice the adult man driving is wearing a bib... Weird, but to each their own. As the new girl reaches out her hand to pass the man his drink, he just starts vomiting on himself, violently so... There was splatter. The new girl stood there in shock, so I grabbed her and pulled her back. The window automatically closed and the man eventually drove away."
"Not a worker but as a customer. One time I had to transport this huge replica military bomb last minute for a work thing and my car was full of decorations and sound equipment so I strapped it in the passenger seat. The boss called and asked for coffee too so I stopped through a Starbucks forgetting I had this bomb in the front seat lol."
"A raw chicken in the passenger seat. no tray or anything wrapping it. just a baked chicken ready to be cooked."
That chicken must of had the good stuff, he's baked and ready for the oven
"A snake. Just chilling with the passenger. Nice little ball python. They got their food and I wasn't the person at the window but no one mentioned the snake and they just drove off. We all laughed about it after they left though."
"I used to see someone come through with a lifelike mannequin in their passenger seat. I asked about it and turns out they did it to use the commuter lanes on the highway (you must have more than 1 person in the car or cop a fine)."
"Semi-regulars at my branch before I started working from home who had a car filled with baby dolls, their car plastered with home-printed anti-abortion slogans and packing tape, who always wore the same ratty a** baseball caps and fishing vests with paper bible verses and mini baby heads safety-pinned to them.
Unsurprisingly, they were both complete a**holes to all the tellers.
I hated them. A lot."
"While working at taco bell I had some guy who came through with a dead deer in the passenger seat just looking out the window."
Reddit user said:
"Had a customer come through with a giant grandfather clock in the back seat. The thing was so huge it was sticking out the side window, which just so happened to be on the left side of the car. Which meant dude couldn't get close enough to the window to reach his food and had to step out, cursing the whole time."
CW1KKSHu replied:
"Here's your change. Hey, do you happen to know what time it is?"
"A lady, who was a daily regular at a drive-thru Starbucks, kept a 1-gallon bottle of bleach in the car. Every time after handing back her card she would hold it outside her car window and dump bleach all over it before putting it back in her wallet. She also always wore a face mask and disposable gloves. This was in like 2004 too, making her completely stand out."
"Not a thing, but I worked a Pizza Hut drive-thru and saw a lady pick her kid’s nose before reaching into her bra to extract some crumpled, moist money for her food. I hated that job."
Ugh. My mom lived in Haiti and hated it when women would take money out of their bra at the local market. Wet money. Yuk.
"These people came through and asked for a separate toy for their monkey.
And sure enough, a monkey hopped up on the driver's shoulder."
"Had a guy come through Tim Hortons in the morning. Go to give him his coffee and he asks me to wait a second. Grabs the beer from his cup holder and chugs the rest of it. Throws it out the open passenger window, takes coffee from my hand, says thank you, and drives away."
"A glass eye on the dashboard. Sixteen-year-old me nearly fainted."
"A woman came through with "B***H" carved into the side of her minivan. My coworker asked her about it and the lady said her teenage son did it."
"Not the weirdest but most infuriating. Lady took a huge drag off her cigarette and then turned to open her purse. Exhaled all of her smoke on her baby, who was in a car seat, in the front seat. - Before you ask if I made some kind of heroic citizen's arrest. I was 16. It was a long time ago."
partofbreakfast said:
"Two guys were hotboxing and decided to come to the drive-thru. They did not stop smoking even when they pulled up to the window. I swear a cloud of smoke rolled out the window when they lowered it to pay.
They offered me a hit and I politely declined."
BlueNinjaTiger replied:
"That happens fairly often. Sometimes I can smell it from the damn kitchen."
187-MDK said:
"4-foot hookah prepped and ready to go."
jiggycup replied:
"Yo me and a friend used to drive with hookah coals in a lotus bowl, stupid s**t man idk how the bowl just never fell and burned us and the car."
itsJussaMe said:
"Saw a car riddled with bullet holes. The occupants were actively messing with handguns as they came through. We did not mess up their order."
Catsrules replied:
"I guess that is one way to get excellent service."
Probably just sport shooters. Lots of people in my family do that. Just love the guns and don't want to hurt anyone.
"Many years ago, as a 16-year-old girl, I worked the drive-thru at McDonald's. A white van with black curtains on the windows pulls up & two men in uniform pay for their order. I see that it’s marked as a prison van from our local penitentiary. The line is stalled up ahead and not moving. During the wait, I am casually peeking behind the driver to see who or what may be onboard. Suddenly, a prisoner in the back moves the black curtain aside and proceeds to shake his head from side to side, screaming & wagging his tongue and just genuinely acting crazy, all while in cuffs. I about jumped out of my skin, scared the c**p out of me! The guard who was driving could not stop laughing. I could hear the roaring laughter of the whole van. They pulled forward and got their fries, and I tried to never be so nosy again!"
I hate those vans I was on one for 10 days. it picked me up in MD and it took 10 days to get to Florida. they'd stop at random jails so we could sleep. no I wasn't a hardened criminal my p.o. violated me for leaving the state after the judge approved it
NetBelleAnie said:
"As a driver, I like to keep a skeleton in my car, buckled up. I like getting the employees to laugh since I can't really decorate the outside of my home."
charlie_ritchie replied:
"I have a skeleton that has been my passenger for a couple of years. Most of the jokes are about forgetting to feed him..."
"Was working the drive-thru at Hardee's as my first job. It's about 10 pm on a Friday night and someone comes into the drive-thru. They order a strawberry malt. As part of my "scripting," I ask if they want to add 2 apple turnovers for $.99. They gleefully agree! Cool! "Your total is $3.14, pull to the next window."
And they didn't. They were laughing. And there was lots of noise. And the noise continued and there was more laughing. Tentatively, I poked my head out of the window and saw 6 high school kids carrying a sofa. They hauled the sofa to the window and asked me to dump the milkshake all over the sofa. Whatever, they paid for it so I enjoyed it! When I gave them the pies they proceeded to smash them and smear them all over the sofa. Then they carried it to the parking lot and loaded it onto a truck and drove away."
"I was working the drive-thru at Burger King in a snowstorm. The driver orders a coke with no ice. When I hand them the coke, they empty it a bit, break off a couple of icicles hanging from the car, put in the coke, and drive off without saying a word."
Voiceisaweapon said:
"The entire car was filled with trash. Like legitimately up to the ceiling in the back seat and up to shoulder height in the passenger seat. I was so stunned I nearly forgot to give them their food."
OozeNAahz replied:
"Worked in IT with a guy whose car was like that. Had seen the car in the parking lot many times but was like a year before I saw him get in it. He was nuts but didn’t realize he was that kind of nuts. And he sat one cube away."
2007_RX-8 said:
"It was either the 12-year-old driving or the lady in a right-hand drive car. The fact she had the audacity to get mad at me because I couldn't reach her money..."
PotatoWizzard replied:
"Honestly, the twelve-year-old driving isn't that surprising. I see kids that are way too young to be driving behind the wheel all the time. They are driving farm trucks for their parents but still, have the same principal. Not all that uncommon in very rural areas."
That's how I learned to drive, my cousins and I taking turns joyriding the farm truck round and round the barnyard.
One time several years ago, my friends and I were on our way back home from a local anime convention and we stopped at Wendy's at like 1 AM to get some spicy nuggets because HELL YEAH, SPICY NUGS. Just imagine being overnight shift at Wendy's and looking out the window and seeing Ezreal from League of Legends, Playmaker from Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS, and two catgirl maids with rainbow wigs all crammed in a s****y old 2001 Ford Focus. The cashier looked so confused. It was glorious.
I'm now wondering what weird thing I can put in my car the next time I go through a drive-thru
One time several years ago, my friends and I were on our way back home from a local anime convention and we stopped at Wendy's at like 1 AM to get some spicy nuggets because HELL YEAH, SPICY NUGS. Just imagine being overnight shift at Wendy's and looking out the window and seeing Ezreal from League of Legends, Playmaker from Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS, and two catgirl maids with rainbow wigs all crammed in a s****y old 2001 Ford Focus. The cashier looked so confused. It was glorious.
I'm now wondering what weird thing I can put in my car the next time I go through a drive-thru
