Man shuts down McDonald's for hours after randomly bringing in a dead raccoon

Out in the world, there's plenty of division, politics and negativity to make you feel safe, but usually, all are welcome underneath the Golden Arches. No matter your background, colour or class, as long as you love chowing down on french fries, burgers and chicken nuggets, then all is forgiven.

But wherever you have all-accommodating policies, you have people who are willing to push that accommodation to its limit - and then some. So spare a thought for all of those people who were dining out at a McDonald's in San Francisco, but were rapidly evacuated after one of the patrons brought a dead raccoon to the restaurant.

Credit: Getty

Why did he have a dead raccoon? Why did he think it was a good idea to bring a dead raccoon into a place where several people would be eating? Why is there footage of the dead raccoon circling the web? How did the raccoon die? Did he kill the raccoon?

All very good questions, don't get me wrong, and we'll do our best to find answers to these questions.

Chris Brooks is the man who brought this rather insane incident to our attention, after he walked into a McDonald's branch on Potrero Avenue, San Francisco, and was immediately greeted by the sight of a man with a dead raccoon on the table in front of him.

Speaking to ABC-7 after the fact, Brooks says he was just going to McDonald's that Sunday to pick up some breakfast, when everything went decidedly awry. "I'm standing at the counter, guy comes in yelling help, help," said Brooks.

The other patrons ran to the man at the back of the McDonald's location, where they saw a raccoon, on the table where the Big Macs are supposed to go. "I didn't know if the raccoon was dead or alive, my thought was to get out of the way," said Brooks, who decided immediately to run out of the McDonald's.

The video above was filmed from this vantage point outside the McDonald's, and it's clear that Brooks can't quite believe what he's seeing. Brooks tries to confront the man - suspected to be homeless - on why he brought a dead raccoon into a McDonald's. He does not get a satisfactory answer.

Credit: Getty

Eventually, the police were called, and although they interviewed the man in question here and gave him a mental health valuation, law enforcement decided that he didn't need to be detained, although they very wisely disposed of the dead animal, and shut down the restaurant for hours so it could be disinfected.

The Department of Environmental Health confirmed that it took around five hours before they were satisfied that the McDonald's was up to an acceptable level of hygiene.

"We want to assure the public that McDonald's addressed the problem appropriately they cleaned it, sanitized it which is the main thing for us," said Director of Environmental Health Stephanie Cushing in a statement.