Help, I need a Whopper: woman calls 911 from drive-thru
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It was a Whopper of a 911 call — and she likely did want fries with it.
A customer was so irate at the long lineup at the drive-thru on the opening day of Steinbach’s only Burger King Thursday, that she called RCMP 911 to complain.
RCMP took to Twitter to remind people that while they “realize you aren’t you when you’re hangry,” 911 is for emergencies only.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
A customer was so irate at the long lineup at the drive-thru on the opening day of Steinbach’s only Burger King Thursday, that she called RCMP 911 to complain.
RCMP Manitoba media relations officer Tara Seel said their emergency call centre came in as the lineup of vehicles stretched past the restaurant and onto Highway 12, a busy corridor.
“She was quite upset about the long drive-thru lineat the new Burger King in town,” Seel said.
“So, obviously, not a situation where you should be calling 911.”
“There’s a serious undertone here, and that is that we can’t be tying up emergency operators for non-emergency issues, of which this is clearly one,” Seel said.
RCMP Manitoba gets “quite a few” calls to 911 for a variety of non-emergent reasons, Seel said.
“We don’t want to discourage anyone from calling 911 if you feel that you need emergency assistance at all, or even if you have a doubt if you should be, then you should call for sure,” she said.
“But when you’re waiting in a long line at the drive-thru, that is not an emergency. Police are not able to assist you in that way.”
While the woman in question was likely hoping to “have it her way” quicker, she was just one of many excited and hungry patrons to get their hands on a locally made Whopper Thursday. RCMP monitored the area and, while it was busy, Seel said the traffic in to and out of the Burger King lot wasn’t dangerous.
“My understanding is that it was a pretty big event in the community,” she said.
A Facebook group named “Like to help bring Burger King to Steinbach, Manitoba,” which has 404 followers, had posted status updates in support of the King — and critical of other fast-food chains — since 2011. Then it went silent in 2015.
On Dec. 10, 2022, it returned, posting, “We won Burger King coming to Steinbach.”
On Thursday evening, a final, triumphant post: “Open.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
