McDonald's Employee Hospitalized After Reaching Into Fryer To Retrieve Earbud

Not The Bee ^ | January 02, 2026 | Wolfgang Ramsay

[Red Badger]

To some people, earbuds are life.

Girl was probably just trying to enjoy some Modern English on the job when one of her earbuds fell out and dropped right into the deep fryer. And then, reportedly, she reached in to try to get it out.

Believe it or not, the woman suffered burns to her hand and was treated by an EMS crew and promptly transported to the hospital.

I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go ahead and just assume they cleaned out that fryer.

[Tell It Right]

Maybe someone ordered chicken fingers and she thought they said lady fingers.

[Red Badger]

Bobbing for Earbuds!................

[rlmorel]

As long as you don't order food in China cooked in their "gutter oil" you are probably "reasonably" safe...

[Red Badger]

But then it wouldn’t have that special ‘flavor’ of authentic Chinese cuisine!.............

[sonova]

Thing is, people this stupid are all around us. They make our food, and they drive cars. Some may drive busses.

[Red Badger]

...and they VOTE!.................

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Did she have to go to the hospital because she stuck her hand in scalding oil or because she touched those toxic fries?

[Nifty]

I doubt she was listening to Modern English.

Probably some rapper instead.

[albie]

Give the idiot a hand!!!

[BobL]

Was there a warning on the fryer telling people not to reach into it if they drop an earbud in there?

Probably not, so it looks like McDonald’s will have to pay out, BIG TIME.

[GingisK]

The rest sit in Congress.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I’m reminded of line from an Alistair MacLean novel about a solider being shot because he had “too quick reflexes”

I can sympathize with the reflex to try to catch something you've dropped without thinking it through. I was once sharpening a very sharp, heavy blade on a worktable when it slipped off the edge. Instinctively, I grabbed it, putting a nice deep slash across my palm.

[xp38]

I’d say she’s not lovin it right about now.

[central_va]

Ow! Better put some salt on that.

[CodeToad]

“This never would have happened if he’d been paid $25 an hour.”

This would never had happened if the idiot was even worth the money they do pay.

[rlmorel]

LOL!

“Mmmmm...gutter oil!”

[jacknhoo]

A friend of mine in the Navy was cook and our submarine was doing what we call angles and dangles exercises. Anyhow, he slid across the galley floor and hit the deep fat fryer and stuck his arm in the hot oil and immediately pulled it out. He said his skin just slid off like a latex glove. Apparently it was fast enough that it didn’t heat too deep because in just a few months you couldn’t even tell it happened. We’re still friends today, one of the few I’ve been able to keep in contact with who isn’t dead yet.

[meatloaf]

I bet they didn’t clean out the fryer.

The owner of a McDonalds I knew changed the fryer oil once a week. The guy who bought the location and who owned several changed oil every two weeks.

[piasa]

Lightning reflexes are a disability when unaccompanied by a brain.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Worse, what if the dirty thing stuck in her ear had fallen on the food after it was served?

I don't get earbuds. Why do people need music 24/7?