McDonald’s Staff Accidentally Drops Drugs In Kid’s Happy Meal, Gets Arrested

A mother of an 11-year-old boy discovered prescription drugs in her son's fast food meal that they had picked up from an Androscoggin County, Maine drive-through late last month, local police said Wednesday.

A McDonald's branch located in Auburn's Center Street had given the family one of the restaurant's signature Happy Meals, but it was found to have contained the opioid medication Suboxone, the Auburn Police Department said in a statement.

According to police, a review of in-store video surveillance footage and interviews with employees revealed that the incident had been an accident caused by an employee.

An investigation revealed that the employee in question — identified by News Center Maine as 43-year-old Michael Sevey — had prepared drive-through meals while carrying the drug in his shirt pocket along with a pen.

The prescription and the pen allegedly fell from his pocket and landed in one Happy Meal box when Sevey bent over to retrieve something from behind the counter, Auburn Deputy Police Chief Timothy Cougle was quoted as saying by the outlet.

Sevey had no knowledge that the drug had gone missing from his shirt until later in the shift, according to the police statement. At that point, the incident had already been brought to the attention of the store.

It was later discovered that Sevey had obtained the drugs illegally from a fellow employee, identified as 29-year-old Mariah Grant, earlier in the shift, a report by Maine radio station Q-106.5 stated.

Taylor Goble, the McDonald's store's franchise owner and operator said he was "shocked and disappointed" over his employees' behavior. Sevey and Grant are no longer employed at the Auburn franchise, Goble added.

Sevey was charged with unlawful possession of schedule W drugs, a class D crime, according to the police statement. Grant, meanwhile, was charged with unlawful trafficking in scheduled W drugs, which is a class B crime.

Both Sevey and Grant are set to appear before court on Nov. 3.

According to police, the management at the McDonald's branch cooperated with the department's investigation into the incident.