It all started at 9:15 a.m. on Dec. 19, when a man says he discovered the suspected drug paraphernalia after placing a breakfast order at a McDonald's in Columbus.
Officials in Ohio inspected a local McDonald's after a customer said he discovered a crack pipe in one of the fast-food chain's take-out bags.
A report filed by the sanitarian from Columbus Public Health who was tasked with inspecting the facility details the incident.
It all started at 9:15 a.m. on Dec. 19, when a man says he discovered the suspected drug paraphernalia after placing an order for a steak bagel, two hash browns, two holiday pies and an Egg McMuffin at the drive-through window of a McDonald's in Columbus, according to the report.
The general manager, who has been with the company for six years, told the sanitarian that she packed the order in the bag, "double folded" it, and then handed it off to a female employee who then gave it to the customer, says the report.
An hour later, that customer returned to the window.
He tells Inside Edition Digital that he reported that he discovered what he thought to be a crack pipe with his food, but he did not request a refund.
A refund was also never offered, he claims.
He says the supervisor he spoke with then instructed him to park in the lot so that they could further discuss the situation.
Within the next hour, the supervisor contacted the police as well as McDonald's' director of Operations and director of HR and Media, according to the report.
Police never showed up at the location, but Columbus Public Health did on the afternoon of Dec. 21, finding a number of problems unrelated to the alleged discovery of the crack pipe, according to the report.
The report says that the location also had "construction workers moving freely through the food prep areas," the presence of "construction equipment, debris, trash, and dust," and "beverage service equipment such as soda dispenser, frappucino machine, frozen beverage dispenser, coffee machine had dust, debris, screws, unassembled computer equipment, wooden trim pieces on the top surfaces."
Columbus Public Health ultimately decided to shutter the location for part of the day on Wednesday for reasons that had nothing to do with the crack pipe.
It is one of 16 franchises owned by Alex Mendoza of the Mendoza Group, and it is now once again open for service.
Mendoza said that the closure had to do with the dust created by the construction crew and not anything drug related.
“As a local business owner, the safety of my customers and crew is my first priority, and we take this very seriously," Mendoza said in a statement to The Columbus Dispatch. "We’ve begun a thorough internal review of this claim. We have no indication that the item came from our restaurant but are continuing to investigate and have contacted local law enforcement to report the matter.”
