What Would Ronald Do?

From the Boing Boing site --

McDonald's fines UK drive-thru eaters £125 for staying more than 45 min

Posted by Cory Doctorow, December 12, 2007 11:33 PM
McDonald's restaurants in the UK have put license-plate cameras in their drive-through parking lots. The cameras watch how long you eat for; if you go over 45 minutes, a fine is sent to your house automatically, charging you £125, and if you don't pay, the fine goes up and up and up.

The company that manages McDonald's car parks, Civil Enforcement, also works with a string of other blue-chip companies. BP used it until recently to monitor some of its petrol station forecourts.

One motorist, Jamie Thomson, told the Guardian of his experience at a McDonald's near Gatwick: "I ordered a burger, chips, a doughnut, coke and coffee. I sat in my car eating my lunch, and listening to the radio. After eating, I continued to sip my coffee for a time, and ate my doughnut. Then I left. All perfectly normal." He says he was in his car for about an hour. Several weeks later, he received a letter from Civil Enforcement demanding £125, or £75 if the charge was paid quickly. At first Thomson, a businessman from Sussex, did not even realise that he was being charged for spending too long at McDonald's, as the notice gave only a partial address.


It would be funny (a little) to say that this is clearly a sign of the Apocalypse, but it is certainly a sign of the destruction of society and its inherent civilities. Probably Dick Cheney, branching out. I'd bet there's some unreported backstory to this -- the MickeyD's in question has a problem with vagrants camping out in the parking lot; they don't have a big parking lot and need to move people right along; they clearly marked that the parking lot in question was for transient use -- but the bottom line is, this is tacky and rude.

Whatever happened to outraged letters to the Times? Were I a McD customer, I'd take my business elsewhere. (Yeah, like thats going to have an effect on them.) But if hundreds, thousands were to knock off their MickeyD fix? Even a single day, I'd think, would grab their attention.... and be good for your arteries, too. Hmmm.....