Senior Judge Peter T. Fay didn't say much during the first case up for oral argument at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 15.
But when the jurist did speak, he might have expressed what anyone in the courtroom aware of the tale leading up to the case was thinking.
"The whole thing is really stupid," said Fay.
"It's bizarre," said Patrick T. O'Connor, a Savannah lawyer representing the plaintiff suing McDonald's Corp. and the franchisee that operated the Hinesville, Ga., restaurant where the plaintiff once worked.
However it's described, the incident at issue is surprisingly widespread around the country.
It's a scam dubbed the "strip-search hoax," and it works like this: a man calls a fast food restaurant, pretending to be a police officer or restaurant corporate official. The caller convinces a restaurant manager that an employee -- invariably female -- is implicated in some criminal wrongdoing, such as theft or drug possession. Per the caller's instructions, the manager has the employee searched, in a progressively invasive fashion.
Details here from the Fulton County Daily Report via Law.com.