The Gross Reason A McDonald's Location Just Had To Close

You're in the mood for a burger and some fries for lunch today, and decide to satisfy that craving by heading over to your local McDonald's. When you arrive at the restaurant, however, you can't help but notice something's kind of "off" about it. For starters, the lights are all on but there's no customers or employees to be seen. Through the closed drive-thru window, you can make out the sound of something running across the utensils and fryer baskets in the kitchen, alongside a very faint squeaking. Then, in the same way an average McDonald's employee would greet you at the window, a large grey rat dripping in cold oil peers its head against the glass.

Fast food and pests have always been an unfortunately common duo. While restaurants can do everything in their power to ensure a clean, safe, and hygienic eating establishment, unexpected guests still sometimes find their way in. In 2019, a video of a rat jumping into an active Whataburger fryer went viral (via The New York Post). In 2021, The Sun reported that a man from Brazil was enjoying a chicken sandwich at KFC when he bit into a half-fried (and enormous) cockroach baked into the breading.

At one Florida-based McDonald's, the Golden Arches played a host to a visiting family — a family that has long tails and scurries on all fours, that is. 

As NBC 2 reports, a McDonald's in Naples, Florida was home to a large colony of brown rats roaming everywhere, from the kitchen to the drive-thru. The revolting discovery of these nocturnal "customers" is credited to Keysha Vega, whose video showing the infestation quickly went viral.

According to Vega, she and her boyfriend had stopped at this particular McDonald's to grab some ice cream. But, instead of seeing any customers or even employees, the pair were instead greeted with an empty restaurant swarming with rats. Vega's video shows a small family of rats — only five of which are visible — scurrying through the empty restaurant, much like children in a fast food play area. Vega and her boyfriend claimed to have seen 10 rodents altogether, before understandably leaving the restaurant. Even more concerning, this McDonald's shares a spot with a Circle K gas station. 

According to Naples Daily News, the McDonald's was already closed by the time a health inspector arrived, although it's unclear if the owner or the company itself ordered the restaurant be shut down. The manager, Mike Adams, claimed that the restaurant and Circle K will be shut down while a "deep cleaning" process takes place.

"It's Ratatouille. They got the babies, they got the grandpa, you know," Vega told NBC 2. "They got everyone in there."