I have no quarrel with her calling the police if she believed a crime had been committed, but they have regular telephone numbers just like everyone else. The 911 system is for emergencies and she should have been cited for misuse of the system. There is a reason that the law provides for such a citation. She had no emergency -- let alone 3 calls worth of emergency. I simply don't understand how anyone can justify this situation as an emergency, or even a "crime" for that matter.
I will say that, as usual, something seems to be missing from this story. Could it be that she swiped a credit card for the transaction, in which case the procedures at Mickey D's may have been to not refund in cash? It is difficult to understand why a manager -- even a complete dumbass manager -- would refuse to give somebody a couple of bucks back if the order couldn't be filled.
Again, if you accept that you can call 911 after a bank robbery where the perp is gone or a car accident when no one is hurt, then 911 is appropriate for non emergencies?
Or is it just ok after a bank robbery because the deposits are insured by the government so it is its money but not ok when it is the citizen who has had her money taken?
Is there a dollar amount that justifies calling 911 and today “The Great Filling Station Hold Up” would have gotten proprietor cited for calling 911 because the crooks did not get enough?
If she had swiped a credit card, then that could have been refunded with a credit back on the card. Maybe she was lying about them not being willing to give her back her money. I doubt that, but if so she was wrong to call 911 and should have been cited, again if they offered her her money back. I suspect they just did not like her there for whatever reason and thought they would just keep her money. The police should have threatened an employee with arrest and had the situation resolved right then. Sometimes that is the job of a cop to resolve a situation to keep it from esculating into a court matter.