I think I’ve heard about three different versions of the story coming out of Northwest Arkansas where Phillip and Tina Sherman filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s. No, they didn’t spill scalding coffee in their laps. No, their children didn’t get stuck in the Playland apparatus and suffer injuries. The Shermans allege that McDonald’s is to blame because, after Phillip lost his cell phone, nude photos of Tina appeared on a website.
The Shermans are suing McDonald’s, the management agency that owns the local franchise, and the manager of the restaurant, Aaron Brummley. They want a jury trial and $3 million in damages for suffering, embarrassment, loss of wages, and having to move to a new home.
Granted, Mrs. Sherman may have been upset after receiving text messages from the misplaced phone saying that the photos had been viewed by someone other than her husband. And, she was probably upset after finding out that it would take 72 hours to remove the photos from the website where they were uploaded. I’m just not sure it’s all worth $3 million.
First of all, the versions of the story I’ve heard don’t agree on how the phone was lost. One said that Mr. Sherman threw it away by accident. Another says that it was simply left behind in the restaurant. However, none of them specify if Mr. Sherman actually called the restaurant and asked if the phone was in the manager’s possession. The Northwest Arkansas News article the link above comes from states that Mr. Brummley, on-duty manager at the restaurant in question, called Mr. Sherman’s mother from the cell phone and stated that he would keep the phone secure until Mr. Sherman returned for it. Other articles state that Mr. Brummley has made no comments regarding the issue and only that employees promised to keep it safe.
Does anyone really believe that your average McDonald’s employee will keep anything that doesn’t belong to them safe? When I was in college I worked as an assistant manager at three McDonald’s. I didn’t trust any of the employees I had under me any farther than I could throw them. Most were snotty high school students who were only there because their parents made them get a job or they wanted to work only long enough to earn money for prom, graduation, or an awesome spring break. Many of the rest were there only because that was the first or last place they had applied and couldn’t find anything else but were happy to complain about having to work and only getting minimum wage. Not all McDonald’s employees are like that, however. I don’t want to start getting hate mail from them, so I figured I’d better clear that up right here.
That leads me into my next question. Why would you carry anything with you that you might be embarrassed about someone else getting their hands on? Reportedly, Mrs. Sherman sent the nude photos of herself to her husband. True, they were “for his own use” (a phrase quickly thrown out there by lawyers, no doubt). But if there’s any chance whatsoever that someone, ANYONE might see them — even by accident — why keep them there? Is it an ego thing? Did he want to show them to his friends?
I’m not going to judge Mrs. Sherman for taking or sending the photos. People do that all the time. What consenting adults do within their relationship is no business of mine. Someone posed the question of whether or not it was illegal for her to do that since it went over the cell phone transmission waves and could have been intercepted. I’m not that technically adept, but I think if it were there would be many more who are guilty of illegal actions when sending pornographic photos over their dial-up or DSL lines by email.
Should the restaurant have kept the phone safe? If they were aware of it being lost and had it in the possession of employees or the manager, then I’d say yes. Is it the responsibility of the manager to ensure that nothing happened to it? Again, only if it was already in the possession of staff and management. If someone else got hold of it before then, it’s not the restaurant’s fault.
So, who’s really to blame? If we go back to the source, then Mr. & Mrs. Sherman are really to blame. I’m not condoning or excusing what happened to the photos after the phone was lost. Mrs. Sherman is embarrassed by the use of her image online and the countless number of people who saw it. The Shermans state that they had to move away from the town they lived in due to the embarrassment. But what ever happened to personal responsibility?
If you don’t want nude photos of you to show up somewhere public, don’t take them. Or, at least don’t take nude photos digitally. It’s harder for your old glossy prints to end up on the Internet without you personally scanning them or the negatives. If you have photos like that, make sure they are secured where no one but you and/or your intended viewer(s) can get to them. And above all, do NOT put them on a device that can be easily lost and have it’s memory retrieved by anyone! Those minimum-wage employees at McDonald’s I supervised had to be watched like a hawk because they would pilfer anything that wasn’t nailed down if they thought it was fun to play with or they could make some money on.
Let’s all take some responsibility for ourselves. Otherwise, I want $3 million for the mental anguish of having to deal with irresponsible people on a daily basis who feel the need to sue corporations and make my cheeseburgers and fries more expensive.
