A crime-plagued Canadian McDonald’s that gained international notoriety nearly a decade ago for a viral video of a brawl involving a raccoon is set to close.
The franchise owner of the McDonald’s on Rideau Street in Ottawa told Insider this month that the location will close, saying it was “a business decision based on the viability of this specific site.”
Crime was part of the routine at the fast-food spot, where police responded to various incidents of drug use and violence.
“Officers attend this location on a daily basis to address issues including vagrancy, liquor license violations, illicit drug use, and incidents of violence,” former Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau wrote to the CEO of McDonald’s Canada in March 2019, Insider reported.
In 2017 alone, local police responded to the McDonald’s 900 times, according to Bordeleau, and received 843 calls for police in 2018. Police responded to the location seven times a day for two days in a row in April 2019, he said.
“If you’ve got a criminal mind this is a target-rich environment,” Inspector Ken Bryden told CTV News in 2019 of the McDondald’s.
“It sees thousands of pedestrians a day, it draws a lot of activity.”
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In 2014, a brawl broke out in the McDonald’s with video footage of the scene going viral for an unexpected appearance of a raccoon during the fight.
The video shows men hitting each other as other patrons line up to order food. In the background, a man pulls a raccoon from his sweatshirt and holds it up, almost as if to show the animal the fight. The man is seen a few seconds later with a cigarette in his mouth and the raccoon apparently returned to his sweatshirt.
“When you come here, you’re afraid,” one resident near the McDonald’s told CTV in 2019.
“I was here about a week and a half ago,” another man, Jack Graham, told CBC News this month of finding a hypodermic needle on the floor of the McDonald’s. “And I just felt I was slipping, so I looked [at my shoe] and there’s a needle.”
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The McDonald’s has been in operation since 1985, according to Insider.
Adeel Hashmi, McDonald’s Canada franchisee, told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the exact date of closure is pending. CTV News reported that the lease was not renewed and the store will likely officially close in April.
“As the proud franchisee of multiple McDonald’s restaurants in the Ottawa area, our goal is to deliver the best possible experience to our guests every time they visit us,” said Hashmi in a statement provided to Fox by McDonald’s Canada.
“The closure of our restaurant on 60 George Street is a business decision based on the viability of this specific site,” the statement added. “We hope our guests in the Ottawa region will visit one of our other restaurants. We are pleased that all our managers and crew will continue their employment at one of our other locations in the region.”
Stateside, McDonald’s announced the closure of a location on Canal Street in New Orleans earlier this year for a “a multitude of reasons.” While in September of last year, the company’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said that crime in Chicago, where the fast-food company is headquartered, is making it difficult to attract employees.
“Everywhere I go, I’m confronted by the same question,” Kempczinski said at the time. “‘What’s going on in Chicago?’ There is a general sense out there that our city is in crisis.
“Truth is, it’s more difficult for me to recruit a new employee to McDonald’s to join us in Chicago than it was in the past,” Kempczinski added.