SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah man who alleges in a new lawsuit that a McDonald’s employee spiked his drink with a heroin substitute said he had just seated his three young boys on the couch with their happy meals when he took a drink from his Diet Coke while he read work emails on his computer.
Trevor Walker said he suddenly lost feeling in his arms and legs and his vision became distorted. He thought he was having a severe anxiety attack. Before he blacked out and collapsed, he sent two text messages to his wife who was working in the in-home hair styling salon, according to a lawsuit filed July 30 in Utah state court.
“I am having sensations in my arms and everything is moving slowly. I’m feeling scared,” he texted. “I don’t know what to do. I’m so scared I’m trying to be calm. I need you.”
Walker, 33, survived the August 2016 incident after being taken to the emergency room, but now he’s suing McDonald’s and Coca-Cola after settlement talks with McDonald’s broke off, he said Wednesday in an interview.
“It was kind like of like getting punched in the face without knowing it’s on the way,” Walker said, a software engineer. “I was with my kids; that was the part that made it especially scary.”
McDonald’s spokesman Khim Aday said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Coca-Cola didn’t respond to an emailed question about the lawsuit.
Police investigated the incident at the McDonald’s in the Salt Lake City suburb of Riverton but never made arrests after all the employees interviewed denied wrongdoing, said detective Jared Richardson of the Unified Police Department in Salt Lake City.
Richardson said surveillance video from the night of the incident in the drive-thru wasn’t available according to McDonald’s because that footage runs on a two-week loop and the request came in too late.
The lawsuit says the state crime lab determined the heroin replacement, called buprenorphine. It is a replacement for heroin or opioids that usually comes in a dissolvable film, Walker’s attorney explains in the lawsuit. A photo included in the filing shows a white filmy substance and speckles floating at the top of the Diet Coke.
Investigators could never determine how it got there, Richardson said.
The Salt Lake Tribune first reported the lawsuit.
Walker said at first he was relieved to find out the drug had been put in his drink because he was worried he was having some other kind of health condition. But, he then was overwhelmed with bewilderment over why someone would spike his drink.
Richardson of Unified Police said investigators never had a suspect.
Walker said he had trouble sleeping and PTSD symptoms after the incident. He and his wife, Rachelle Walker, 31, said they still get anxiety eating out at restaurants.
He’s asking for unspecified damages and said he wants McDonald’s to take responsibility for what happened.
“I would like there to be some justice for what has taken place. I don’t want to see somebody else go through what we’ve gone through,” Walker said. “It could have been my son. If one of my son’s had drank my drink, the outcome could have been worse.”
Written by BRADY McCOMBS, Associated Press.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Let’s not be in denial here. We all love McDonald’s.
This guy is so full of it. No one spiked his drink. I bet he was taking some and took too much then needed a cover story. No one who takes/needs buprenorphine is going to put it into someone’s drink. It prevents opiate withdrawal, why would a junkie give you their drugs?
pretty weird. I know Mickey D’s doesn’t hire the ‘cream of the crop’, but you gotta be able to prove it still if some lowlife actually poisoned the drink. Shoulda ask for the video footage a bit sooner, huh? Someone goofed.
I agree. He waited two years and it’s going to be hard to prove anything. Since 2016, there has probably been 150% employee turnover, maybe even the Manager.
If he has PTSD from this and suffers when trying to go to restaurants, he does have mental issues, but they predate his visit to McDonalds.
I wonder if he’s hoping for a lottery win like the lady who sued for McDnalds because their coffee was too hot and burned her.
Doesn’t McDonald’s immediately flush out ones insides anyway? He had nothing to worry about.
Let’s see here. A McDonalds employee puts his expensive drugs into a stranger’s Diet Coke. The stranger drinks this cocktail and texts his wife the he’s “scared that he’s having one of his anxiety attacks”. He waits two years and files a suit before the statue of limitations expires and he’s hoping deep pockets will hand him a fortune.
My guess, this guy is self medicating his psychiatric condition and things go badly. His life is not going well any way and he needs his wife to quit work and take care of him and the kids on someone else’s dime.
Yep, something stinks pretty bad here. I hate to judge without knowing all the facts but I’m leaning towards commonsense’s post.
This guy is an idiot!
Even if any of this is true…..how is Coca Cola responsible? Oh yeah, they have a lot of money.