May 17, 2026 at 10:15 am

French Fry Fallout: Why One Man’s Quick Escape Left an Entire Section of the Boardwalk in Absolute Chaos

by Heather Hall

A person feeding a seagull midair

Pixabay

Some people solve one problem without realizing they’re creating another.

So, what would you do if someone kept tossing food to keep seagulls away from themselves, but those same birds ended up swarming and hitting other people nearby? Would you kindly ask them to stop? Or would you just stand and watch in amusement?

In the following story, a boardwalk cashier sees this exact situation play out. Here’s her story.

Tales from your fed-up Boardwalk Cashier: DON’T FEED THE SEAGULLS

I work on the boardwalk, and on this day, a customer appears and orders his fries. He then pays, gets his fries, and walks away.

Pretty typical stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Oh, no! The seagulls are hovering around him.

Well, they do that. They’re super aggressive, and they hang around the store. If they see someone walk by with food (especially fries, since they stick out of the containers, making them easy targets), they dive bomb at full force.

The man came up with a plan.

In the case of this particular customer, he made it all the way to the opposite side of the boardwalk, ten feet from where the stairs dip down to let people onto the beach, before the seagulls dared to swoop down.

Ah, but the man has a plan. He takes a few fries out of his bucket and throws them over the railing of the boardwalk. This is enough to distract the seagulls and, for half a minute, he can eat in peace.

Every time the seagulls came too close, he would toss the fries over the railing, onto the steps, onto the beach below. And so it went on until he decided to go for a walk.

Unfortunately, he didn’t see the women below the boardwalk.

Walk, toss. Walk, toss. Walk, toss.

We watch as two women come up the steps from the boardwalk. They get hit in the chest, face, hair — you name it — about four separate times as the man walks by.

Each time, they get attacked by the seagulls.

The man never noticed them. He continued to walk down the boardwalk. Walk, toss. Walk, toss.

Luckily, the women were able to fend off the seagulls without getting hurt.

Wow! The guy really didn’t think that through.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who gave her phone number to be friendly to a guest, but immediately wished she could take it back.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about feeding wild animals.

This is probably not the best advice to follow.

Seagulls 3 French Fry Fallout: Why One Man’s Quick Escape Left an Entire Section of the Boardwalk in Absolute Chaos

A seagull robbed this person of a burger.

Seagulls 2 French Fry Fallout: Why One Man’s Quick Escape Left an Entire Section of the Boardwalk in Absolute Chaos

For this reader, it was a stolen sandwich.

Seagulls 1 French Fry Fallout: Why One Man’s Quick Escape Left an Entire Section of the Boardwalk in Absolute Chaos

According to this comment, people who do this are a problem.

Seagulls French Fry Fallout: Why One Man’s Quick Escape Left an Entire Section of the Boardwalk in Absolute Chaos

That should be illegal because feeding wild animals does nothing but cause problems.