If you've ever worked at a fast-food restaurant, chances are you've been assigned to work the drive-thru at least once during your time there. Those who have worked a drive-thru shift know that there will be a point when something interesting will come rolling up to the order window. If there's anything good about a drive-thru shift, it's that you can occupy your time observing people's cars and their behavior as a form of real-time entertainment. In a way, it's a special version of people-watching. Drive-thru workers from around the world took to the internet to share the weirdest thing they've seen in someone's car. From birds of prey to awkward nudists, it seems that there's never a dull moment at the drive-thru:
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 Make Room For The Bird
A woman came through with no passenger side seat. It had been pulled out, and in its place hung a giant metal ring with an enormous Cockatoo sitting on it. The thing was going mental when she pulled up.
#2 Three Little Monkeys
When I was working at McDonald’s, one time a woman pulled up with three monkeys and ordered them each an ice cream cone. I still think about that from time to time.
#3 Just The Sausage
I thought it was weird that this lady used to come through every morning and ordered a sausage biscuit for her poodle. For months, I just thought she liked sausage biscuits because she came through every day. Then one day we ran out of biscuits. She said, "Oh that's okay," and pointed at the poodle in the passenger's seat. "He only eats the sausage anyway." From then on, we saved her close to $1.50 per week on dog food because asking for a sausage patty cost less than a sausage biscuit.
#4 A Creepy Request
Once, we had a hearse complete with coffin pull through followed by family and friends in the cars behind. They said the guy in the coffin always enjoyed McDonald's, so it was his final wish to visit one last time.
#5 Touch My Snake
A woman with a small snake around her heck. She offered to let us touch and actually handed it through the drive-thru window. One of my coworkers came up from the back just to see us huddled around my manager with a snake and was super confused. She started freaking out, which made it all the funnier.
#6 See-Through Stockings
My mother used to work the drive-thru at Burger King when she was a teenager. She told me that a man used to come through some nights completely naked except for black see-through stockings. He wore them all the way up. She said he looked squished in like a sleeping squirrel.
#7 Danny Devito, I Love Your Work
I worked at McDonald’s and once saw a hoarder who could only go to our McDonald’s because we didn't have a sharp turn into our parking lot. Her car was so filled that she couldn’t use her steering wheel. She also had a cardboard cut out of (I kid you not) Danny Devito. Good times.
#8 The Falcon Tamer
More than a dozen teenagers in a small car. $0.39 cents for a cheeseburger limit 20 was the deal. They ordered 20. Then, when I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts, this guy came through the drive-thru with a huge falcon in his passenger seat. We all went outside to pet it lol. He was a cool guy—he worked with all types of birds and helped foster them when they were injured before releasing them back into the wild.
#9 Totally Bananas
I was the driver in this case, but I worked at a grocery store, and our order of bananas hadn't come in. I was asked to go to another store in our chain and pick up extra bananas they had in stock. I decided to grab some food on the way back, with my car packed to the brim with bananas. The cashier seemed relatively unphased and just said, "Huh. That's a lot of bananas."
#10 The Horse Lady
Back when I worked drive-thru at a McDonald’s, I served a lady on a horse one time. My manager told her that she had to be in a motor vehicle to come through the drive-thru, but I personally didn't find it as strange since there are a lot of horses in our area.
#11 Dog Or Human?
Not a drive-thru worker, but I was in the passenger seat at a drive-thru bank and had a funny experience. A friend was depositing money. The teller sends back a receipt and a dog treat. Confused, my friend asks what the dog treat is for. The teller points and says, "Your dog in the back seat." At that point, my friend's younger sister, who had been leaning forward brushing her own hair, looked up at the teller. The teller was very apologetic for her confusion, and we all had a good laugh. Well, except for the sister... she wasn't too thrilled about being confused for a dog.
#12 The People Of Chick-Fil-A
Chick-Fil-A. A butt-naked, middle-aged, long-haired guy pulled through in a Jeep with all the doors and top taken off. We still served him. No one was comfortable looking at him except for me. I was the window person. I didn't make an expression and acted like it was nothing to me. His goofy smile faded pretty quick after the less than enthusiastic "My pleasure." Everyone thought I was God.
#13 Nacho Problem
A giant, industrial-sized trash bag FULL of nachos. It pretty much took up the entire back seat. When I asked the guy where he was going to get enough salsa for those chips, he genuinely seemed disappointed because he hadn't thought of that. Apparently, the Mexican restaurant next door was throwing them out and the guy asked if he could have them. So they just gave them to him.
#14 Creepy Passengers In The Bags
I used to work at the drive-thru of Starbucks for some extra money about a year ago. I once had a couple drive up and the girl had a bunch of bags on her and in front of her feet. From what I could tell, they were headless toys. It was like, ten bags but I just averted my eyes and handed them their drinks. Needless to say, the guy was pretty embarrassed because he could tell I was uncomfortable.
#15 eBay Or A Robbery?
While working the drive-thru at Starbucks, some guy pulled through with a car filled with boxes. He said they were filled with flashlights and he offered me some. I completely forgot about it until I got off work. When I got out to my car, there were five boxes each filled with 20 brand-new Duracell flashlights still in the packaging. It had to be worth at least $500. And he had many more boxes.
#16 Drive-Thru Companion
Former Taco Bell worker here. One time, a guy ordered food while having a parrot on his shoulder. I didn’t say anything about it, and he didn’t say anything about it. I still wonder if that’s just how he drove around town.
#17 Shopping Cart Ride
While working at Hardee's, we had a bunch of tipsy people in a Target shopping cart being pushed by another tipsy person come up to the drive-thru speaker to order dinner. We couldn't serve them because they weren't in a motor vehicle. By the way, the nearest Target was on the other side of town about three miles away.
#18 Big Ol' Pup
Not weird by most standards, but one of my clients has the largest, brownest dog I have ever seen (a Newfoundland). At a distance, I thought this woman had a bear cub in her car. The dog apparently enjoyed dog biscuits but was so gentle that she couldn't always keep them in her mouth. Sometimes, she drops them outside the car and I have to send out a new one. I freaking love that dog.
#19 Another Parrot Incident
I had a regular who would go through the drive-thru with a parrot. It would angrily demand french fries or chicken nuggets when at the speaker. The driver would keep stopping to tell it to shut up. I thought there was a tipsy frat boy in the car with the driver the first time I came across the duo. Pretty bird—I usually saved a single french fry to give to him when I heard his familiar screaming through the headset.
#20 White Windows
I worked at In-N-Out Burger for about a year. More than once, we'd have people late at night pull up with opaque, white windows. They'd roll it down to pay and collect their food and plumes would just literally pour out.
#21 Meeting Dana White
Dana White. He had like five championship belts in his car. There is probably a logical reason why he had all of those. Like, I know some champions weren't defending their belts and there was going to be interim fights... Maybe he collects them before a fight or something, I don't know. But with the way he acts, I think it would be easy to believe he just snatches the belts from the fighters after a fight and rides around with them as an ego boost.
#22 All An Act
One time, I was working the drive-thru and I could hear the bass coming from this really expensive-looking Jeep with those blue under lights. We were curious as to who would pull up... It was four guys dressed completely like the Blue Man Group. They had their music blaring and they didn’t say anything. It was weird.
#23 The Cop In Line
A pack of tipsy people. What made this one fun was the cop car behind them in line. The idiots asked my window worker not to tell on them after being just as awful as you'd expect a car full of tipsy people (who saw no problem with driving under the influence) to be. She came to me as they pulled away and asked me if she could tell the cop. I comped his meal and gave her my blessing. You don't get a lot of wins in fast food, so that one stuck with me.
#24 Near-Miss Connection
Not really a weird thing, but a rather funny occurrence. I was taking someone's money and she was on Tinder. It turned out, it was my profile she was looking at (though, I don't think she realized it because she never once looked my direction). Of course, they swiped left. That's okay, though... her car was a mess inside, and that's a pretty big tell, I feel.
#25 The KFC Lady
I work at a drive-thru car wash. A woman once came through with a bucket of KFC mashed potatoes stuck to her window. We cleaned it off.
#26 Food First, Birth Later
A lady in labor, in the driver's seat, by herself, ordering food. She was literally having contractions and doing the weird breathing thing that women are supposed to do to help with the pain. She said she was on the way to the hospital but she wanted to get a burger, fries, and a soda before she went. There wasn't even anyone with her, that lady drove herself to the hospital while having contractions and chowing down on a freaking burger.
#27 The Dogs Take Priority
This guy would bring his elderly mother and his dogs through the drive-thru every day, but his mom always sat in the backseat and his dogs shared the passenger seat. Also, a guy whom I'm pretty sure was a criminal would come every day and order a plain cup of McDonald's yogurt. He'd tell me to give his change to "the kids."
#28 Never A Dull Moment At DQ
I used to work at a DQ Grill & Chill. In order of weirdest things I’ve seen in a car: a chimpanzee holding a raccoon in the passenger seat, a horse serving as the ‘vehicle’ through the drive-thru, a woman with three very life-like dolls strapped into child seats in the back, an inflatable boat, and a parrot.
#29 Naked And Unbothered
When I worked at Whataburger back in the day, I was working the overnight to early-morning schedule. Around 5:30 a.m., just as I was winding down my shift, a guy pulled up completely nude except for a ball cap. He was acting very nonchalant about his almost complete lack of clothing. I washed the heck out of my hands after handling his money, which he had ready in the cupholder thing.
#30 Plants Gotta Eat Too
I once had a lady come through the drive-thru and just ordered water, which isn't that unusual. Then, I saw her water her large basil plant in the passenger seat, seat-belted into the chair.
#31 An Oddly Sweet Arrangement
I was working in a fajita place. We would have this guy come through the drive-thru every couple of days asking for steak fajitas supreme with the meat on the side. After this going on for a while, I finally asked what the deal was. He said he was a Rastafari and a vegetarian, but his dog wasn't. So he ate veggie tacos and the dog got the steak.
#32 Farm On Wheels
I work at a drive-thru coffee stand. One time, a woman came through in a van with 18 ducks, three dogs, and a small horse jammed inside. Oh, and she had her kid with her, too. It was a whole freaking farm rolling around in one van.
#33 Sounds Like A Good Day
Not the worker here, but I imagine the Taco Bell employee was confused when my dad rolled up absolutely blasting sea shanties (mainly by The Longest Johns and Stan Rogers), and with a medieval reproduction shield, a cauldron, and me in Victorian style clothes in the car.
#34 Pop! Goes The Ferret
I work at a retail pharmacy with a drive-thru. I was talking to this lady about her medication and all of a sudden a ferret popped up from her lap to look out the window. It was the strangest but also the best thing I've ever seen.
#35 A Real Joey
A baby Kangaroo. To clarify, I live in New England and this is not normal. To be honest, I was just out of view of it, but it caused quite a clamor.
#36 Rattle My Bones
A friend of a friend was working the drive-thru when he encountered a YouTube prankster doing a skeleton prank. The prankster seemed not to be in the car. It was rigged up by some remote control. Instead of a driver, the skeleton was "driving" the car.
#37 Good Moment, Bad Job
Not super weird, but weirdly cute. A guy only ordered gravy and a biscuit. He pulled up to the window and boom: a very cute dog was sitting in the front seat. I was very happy to see this, and as I took his payment, the back window rolled down. Boom: about seven puppies were in the back seat scrambling around acting as cute as dogs can get. It was a very good memory from a very bad job.
#38 Friendly Staff
Not a worker, but a former dumb teen. Back in early high school, my buddy and I were riding around town. He was on a bicycle and I was on a Razor scooter. We decided we wanted ice cream cones from DQ. Like most teenagers, at one point or another, we decided to ride through the drive-thru. I guess because of the bike and scooter, the sensor picked us up and we ordered. Then when we came to the window, the workers looked at us like the idiots we were. The nice staff still served us, but then we realized how hard it was to ride and eat ice-cream. So we ate on the sidewalk in front of the store.
#39 Clowning Around
I used to work the closing shift at the Tim Hortons near where I live. One night, I was just beginning to pack stuff up and finish cleaning at around 11:30 p.m., and a seemingly normal car pulled up to the speaker. I took their order which was three large coffees and got them to pull up to the window. There they were: three people dressed up as clowns acting as if nothing at all was out of the ordinary. I kept calm and finished the order, but I still think back to how freaky that really was.
#40 The Chicken Purse
I once complimented a woman on her purse that was in the exact shape of a chicken. It was made of colored rubber... A really unique item, I'd say. She then told me to hold on, got out of her car, and grabbed an IDENTICAL CHICKEN PURSE to give to me. She said she had been “waiting for the right person to give it to.” It was used and quite old.
#41 I "Forgot"
When I was in high school, two teenagers dressed as Beavis and Butthead came through the drive-thru at midnight on Halloween in a shopping cart. They even ordered in character. I was so impressed that I "forgot" to charge them for the food.
#42 A Sad Sight
Nothing completely abnormal so to say, but trash... a lot of trash. Like, it completely filled the back seat all the way to the passenger seat. Maybe a hoarder, or mental illness? Either way, pretty sad to see.
#43 A Spiky Cap
I used to work at McDonald's. This is probably not weird by most people’s standards, however it is really unusual in the area I was working. I had a guy come through with a spiked baseball bat sitting in the passenger seat. I’m really glad our ice cream machine was working that night.
#44 A Lizard And A Cat
I saw a lizard chilling on someone’s dashboard being fed veggies. A cat was also in the same car.
#45 Parrot Antics
I’ve gone through a drive-thru with my parrot before. Usually, she’s in a cage, but one time I was getting my house sprayed and I wanted to get her out of the house, so we went to the drive-thru. She was on my shoulder opposite the window being uncharacteristically quiet until I was handed the food. When she piped up, the server suddenly noticed her and did a double-take. It was pretty amusing.
