There’s nothing worse for restaurant staff than messy kids who are allowed to do what they want.

So, what would you do if a family left a restaurant table in terrible condition and you realized they had left something of importance? Would you put it to the side for when they come back and ask for it? Or would you put it in the trash and let them find it on their own?

In the following story, a McDonald’s employee finds herself in this situation and decides to teach the customer a lesson. Here’s what happened.

You should teach your kids to 1) clean up after themselves 2) treat customer service workers with respect.

When I was much younger, I worked as a shift manager at a McDonald’s in the UK.

One day, there was a young-ish mother with 3 kids in the restaurant, probably ranging from 8 to 13. They were running riot, which was annoying but fine.

It was only when they left I realised the extent of the state they’d left things.

She felt bad and offered to clean it up.

The girl working the dining area came up to me, looking a bit angry, and said I might want to get someone to come cover her as “this is going to take a while.”

I went to take a look and told her instead that I’d take care of it, as I felt bad for her. The entire table was littered with food and empty boxes – that’s not a big deal, I never expected people to clear their tables. However, the kids had also smeared ketchup all over the seats and the wall.

This wasn’t accidental. You could see their handprints where they had tried to write things in the sauce. I found they had also chewed their fries and then spat them out and stuck them all to the underside of the table. The mother had just watched them do this and did not say a word.

As expected, the customer came back.

But there, right in the middle of the table amongst the empty sauce packets, half-eaten burgers, and shredded Happy Meal boxes, was a small purse and 4 cinema tickets.

I grabbed a bin bag and swept the entire lot into it. Food, trash, cinema tickets, everything.

I then cleared a couple more tables, added the contents of one of the food waste bins from the kitchen, and took it out the back door, subtly marking the specific bag so I’d know which one it was.

About 45 minutes later, Mum and kids come storming back into the restaurant, and she’s looking a little panicky.

The woman was forced to look herself.

She explains what she’s lost, to which I reply something along the lines of “I’m terribly sorry, the table was just such a mess, there was no way I’d have been able to spot any personal items amongst it. I cleared this area myself, so I can show you exactly which bin bag it was in.”

We were much quieter now, so I immediately sent the lobby girl on lunch, so there’s no way she’d be guilted into helping. The Mum was seething with rage and told me I should go through it for her. I refused, telling her very bluntly it’s not my problem.

Knowing the movie was about to start, I reminded her she didn’t have much time to wait for someone else to do it and went back inside.

I waited a while and came back out. As she was digging through the trash in the bin area, hands covered in sauce and half-chewed food, I said in the chirpiest voice I could: “I recommend in the future you not let your kids purposely make such a mess.”

Yikes! That whole thing sounds like a nightmare.

Let’s see what the fine folks at Reddit think about this situation.

This reader thinks she’s a hero.

Here’s this person’s impression of the mother.

This sounds stressful.

For this person, she cleans up after her own child.

The woman more than asked for it. She needs to teach her children better than that.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.