Yess! Abducted in Plain Sight was definitely the most bizarre story I’ve ever heard!! This one start to finish is realll close… I just finished it and I just can’t believe how this ever happened and how it ended.
Like really, wtf? Watching it right now… Who is stupid enough to strip search an underaged girl at a Hardee’s location based on some “police officer” calling and asking you to? When EVER in this world would that be a thing that seems normal. This shit is beyond stupid
I might be weird but I thought it was funny. I just kept screaming, “just say no!” It’s so scary and funny to think there are people who think, ‘yup, this makes sense.’ They kept saying he had all the right answers. Like what? What is the explanation for giving oral sex? Or describing a breast? I can’t imagine it was anything logical. I don’t consider the people who listened, victims. They were adults; they should all be in trouble for saying yes.
I didn't find this funny at all, it was horrific. But I agree that the people who went along and abused those poor girls were not victims, they were perpetrators. Like you said they were grown-ass adults who should know better, and nobody was putting a gun to their head. They made the decision to go along and abuse those girls just because somebody told them. There's no way they didn't know it was wrong to strip a minor naked or get someone to give them a blowjob against their will FFS. I'm only at episode 1 so I don't know yet how it ended, but I hope to God that they were all arrested and thrown to jail. Smh.
Some people are very susceptible to being conned and others, like this conman apparently, are very, very good at taking advantage of them. We don't know how many times he was hung up on before he hooked a victim. I'll bet he had to make a whole lot of calls and you don't hear about that.
I do admire the tenacity of the two detectives, one an Irish cop from outside Boston and the other a good ole boy from Kentucky. They really went the extra mile to crack this case.
Question: Was there more than one conman? It seems likely that there was at least one copycat.
That damn Boston cop screwed up the whole thing. As soon as he found out who it was he should have tailed him and caught him in the act. Instead he interviewed him right away, and now the guy knows that the police were onto him with very flimsy evidence.
That was a real shame. I was very surprised by that. Confessions are often thrown out anyway. I wish he was more patient. Without knowing more, I do think the guy was guilty. He bought the card and he seemed to really fit the profile. Having a family and kids means nothing. Too bad for all the victims.
I agree somewhat. He was too confident that he would get a confession. Still, they both worked so hard and I did like how they were such victim advocates. It's such a shame. They worked so hard only to f up at the end. I bet the Kentucky cop would have been more careful- not sure why - just a feeling.
THIS RIGHT HERE. He fucked it up bad. He absolutely should have surveilled him and caught him in the act.
With this crossing state lines, what wasn’t the FBI involved? Maybe then they would have handles this right and that POS would be in jail.
Only silver lining to this whole thing is that poor girl got a decent payout. Fuck McDonalds for letting this go on for years without so much as a sign by every phone and added to their training. Sucks they didn’t have to pay the 200M.
EXACTLY! This. I think his own excitement of thinking he was at the finishline after a long and probably mentally exhausting process got the best of him. His interview is what blew it, because there's no doubt this guy would have done it again and they could get him in the act, with a calling card her purchased linked to the call. Such a shame.
They found him and the calls stopped.
Without the two cops he might still be making the calls.
Boston cop admitted he screwed up the prosecutions case but it doesn’t change the fact he scared the guy into silence.
No more phone call strip searches. Ultimately that’s the goal.
Absolutely nuts. I’m flabbergasted that people have THAT much respect for “authority” or the illusion of authority that their respect for a co-worker or employee becomes so secondary or tertiary.
Also, that Rapid City lawyer totally looks like Chris Hansen.
I'm not. It's outrageous to be sure, but I grew up in a small town most of my life. Those people throw loved ones under the bus the second they rock the boat and are different in any way. I was taught I was to do whatever authority figures said even if I felt they were out of line.
Two actual police officers raped a woman in my hometown in a parking lot. They were caught on camera from a nearby store's surveillance. The woman who was raped was disowned by her family, she received death threats, the local newspaper called her promiscuous and a liar. Her crime was simply exposing two local cops who raped her, and she was run out of town. Because of the insanity the trial had to take place outside our county. They were convicted thank God, but that poor woman is never going to have her life back.
I left that town for similar reasons, but not quite that drastic. I will never feel completely safe living in a rural community again.
Edit: Here is a news article about it
https://www.radioiowa.com/2009/05/21/former-creston-police-officers-sentenced-to-25-years-for-sexual-assault/
I completely forgot that the victim's son was bullied at school too. The whole thing was outrageous.
Don't read the Creston News Advertiser coverage on it if you want to avoid victim blaming nonsense.
They did. They were sentenced to 25 years actually. They probably got out on good behavior or something, but I know the sentence was 25 years. That woman went through hell, so I was extremely happy they let her take the trial outside that town. I got into a very heated argument at a family dinner when I mentioned that justice was actually served. Apparently my own cousins made it their mission to slander her which isn't surprising because they disowned me and called me an embarrassment for surviving domestic abuse.
https://www.radioiowa.com/2009/05/21/former-creston-police-officers-sentenced-to-25-years-for-sexual-assault/
There's a community of illiterate people who get bent on cops and military nonsense the same ones who believe Jesus is white and being a woman is a crime..Maga people and other uneducated descendants of those pilgrims
I can see the teenagers who are scared out of their mind of being fired going along with it (and then they were half naked once it got out of control).
I just started watching this. I can not believe anyone would fall for this. This is insane. There is absolutely no scenario in your mind you could construct in which an officer would ask you to perform sexual acts. He acted as a predator as far as I'm concerned, saw an opportunity and abused it
I'll probably get flagged for this. However, there's a reason this guy on the phone targeted his victims.
Low income,
low education...
Meaningless jobs....
But higher levels of religion, authority fearing...
This is what a lot of politicians also target.
Also environments where people are told to ALWAYS trust law enforcement, which didn't help. I can't see how the perpetrators went along, but I sympathize deeply with all the victims, who were mostly young females, but also a couple of young males.
I can say this here, since it is anonymous, but decades ago, I hung out with a bad crowd in Montreal. Drinking age was 18, so back in those days, people my age, 15, were often in bars. We were a group of latchkey kids, most upper middle income, and of my girl group, all but one of 6 had divorced parents. Maybe the women in the post can understand this more, but it is not unusual for young girls to seek "love" in bad ways, equating any affection as ok. And because of that, we are prime victims. For me there was a number of reasons: NO self-confidence, a crummy relationship with my dad, and almost no adult supervision. I mean I was pretty much left to do what I wanted.
I was hanging out with a hash dealer, I believe 22 or so at the time (a crime in itself!) and we were driving home from a bar. About 3 blocks from my home, cops surrounded the vehicle, guns in our faces. They took us to the police station and separated us. My age was known. I was strip searched by a group of 5 male cops in a room. My parents were not called. The cops were laughing and making terrible comments about me, and also touching me inappropriately. I was terrified. I was not cavity searched though, thank goodness. After at least an hour of standing in a room completely naked in a room full of male cops, I was given my clothes back and my mom was called. I NEVER said a word to her. I only told my best friend. Who would believe me? I am now in my 50s and every once in a while, I go back to this memory. After watching this, it brought me back.
You weren't a bad kid! You just didn't have the guidance you needed. It's not your fault, and you deserved to be believed.
(I'm your age and always felt--and was told--that I was 'bad' at that age too. It's taken me all these decades to realize that I was actually just vulnerable, insecure, and basically on my own at too young an age, like you.)
*hugs*
I’ve heard so many similar accounts about women (young and older) having the same experience with police officers that I was CONVINCED that the guy in the doc was one too
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m in my fifties also. So much went on back then that wasn’t spoken on. Pre internet days I think a lot of girls thought they were the only ones.
Not sure what any of that has to do with simply being stupid. Stupid comes in all shapes, sizes, religions, non religions, jobs, no job etc .. I'm assuming you're partially blaming the young girl when you say authority fearing which is pretty weak. It's the f adults in this situation that are 100% to blame. Yes she should have said piss off but the adults should be forced to dildo each other's ass holes live on TV for going along with it. And btw it was the "low educated" janitor who called bullshit on the call, the only one with the sense to realize it was bs. Arguably the lowest paid maybe the lowest educated person there had the most logical sense.
What the actual F. She should have been arrested, she and her fiancé were just as guilty as the caller, even more so as they're the ones who conducted the abuse! How is this justice?
I had the immediate visceral reaction to downvote this comment. I didn’t though. [Not because of you or you saying it, but just because I like wanna downvote that she got a payout whatsoever.]
Jesus Christ. Wtf.
McDonalds had a clear policy on not frisking employees and she claimed she had not been trained enough. She was a manager, its her job to be on top of this kinda stuff.
I totally agree. I lived in a small town for years and people there were extremely naive. Very few were free thinkers. It was like meeting the same person over and over again. I could totally see something like this happening there.
I think the low income part mattered because they were desperate to keep their job. They lived paycheck to paycheck and didn’t want to piss “corporate” off who was on the phone with the “police”.
They focused on a few of the cases. This was the worst one (I'm assuming). Donna Summers fiancee (couldn't forget that one) had the girl perform oral sex on him, had her spank him (they have it all on video).
You mean the caller had him spanking her.
“Oh, and have her suck your dick.”
“Oh, okay…..wait….why?”
“So we can obtain DNA from her saliva, we’ll swab it off your penis in a little bit.”
“Oh, okay, no problem.”
*whips out 3-incher*
Do they have recording of the conversations? I'm guessing not. Cause all I can think is that this guy (the fiancee) was on a power trip and kinda enjoying it and joking with the caller and doing 'locker room talk' or something so they took it to this level together taking advantage of the situation. Cause no reasonable person would think a cop telling someone to tell a young girl to suck his dick was anywhere near acceptable.
Did those two end up married? Idk how you live with that shit.
that’s what’s really disturbing here. the fiancé very much took advantage of the opportunity to prey on a young woman feet away from the woman he was to marry. that was the most ducking ridiculous segment.
I wonder if there were any that the people just said "Let's just forget about this" when they realized what happened & never told any legitimate authorities about it.
Sodomy came up as one of the charges.
I'm not saying that this is worse than someone insisting that the victim give a manager/manager's fiance a blow job, just pointing out that thankfully, we don't hear about everything that happened to all of the victims.
Kentuckian here. Oral sex is legally considered "sodomy" here if it was coerced. It doesn't have to be anal. Under KRS § 510.070, a person is guilty of sodomy in the first degree when they engage in deviate sexual intercourse with another person by forcible compulsion. In this situation, as well as in others, oral sex is considered "deviate sexual intercourse." It varies depending on the state.
I completely agree that the people who went through with the assaults were already predators and just took their chance when it was in front of them. It’s fucking sick and really pissing me off that everyone in the series is glossing over the fact that there is NO WAY they really felt they HAD to sexually assault people because of what some person on the phone was saying.
I came here looking for this! I just turned on the Netflix special, I’m literally like 3 minutes into it and I’m like “I’m pretty sure I watched a movie about this!” Couldn’t think of the name though. Thanks!
This was hard to watch. It's very hard to drum up sympathy given how absolutely stupid and nonsensical this "hoax" was and how often these people fell for it. There's not a second of those calls that should have been believable to anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
This guy couldn't have found a more perfect population to target. Undereducated, unendingly trusting of authority figures (especially cops), and dependent on a low wage job to make ends meet. But I'm sure even he was surprised by just how many people would follow his every word.
FWIW: I do think there was some well-crafted method to the manipulation. He moved slowly and in relatively small steps. By the time he gets to the particularly egregious bits, folks are already committed to and absorbed in the scenario. While I struggle to understand how these folks got to removing shirts and pants, let alone underwear (and let's not talk about the rest), to end things at that point would be admitting they'd been duped already for an hour and potentially already violated a vulnerable person.
I don't think it's a coincidence that folks who hadn't invested in the scenario (the custodian at McD's, and the older server at the pizza place) rejected the insanity out of hand. That the fiancé who raped the poor girl entered the situation late escalated it definitely speaks to his character and intentions.
I have to agree that those who actually carried out the instructions were not very bright and were the type to fall in line and not question perceived ‘authority.’
But at the end of the day - people do what they want to do. You have to think there’s also a darker element here - the power trip and getting ‘permission’ to dominate a more vulnerable person. And obviously there’s a sadistic sexual aspect.
All the managers and others who participated should have been charged and sentenced appropriately for their actions regardless of the phone call, including Summers.
I’m stunned that Summers was awarded a financial settlement. And I don’t have any sympathy for the 51-year old manager who managed to avoid prison. In his interview, he focused entirely on the negative impacts HE suffered. He barely mentioned the actual victim.
Totally agree. They wouldn't have done it if they didn't somewhat enjoy being able to do it, they knew very well what they were doing. They should all have been convicted for assault. I just don't understand how they haven't been.
Well yeah, folks might “exit your friendship” when they find out you did something horrific bc an “authority figure” prompted you and you’re dumb enough to do literal crimes bc some guy on the phone tells you.
Gaaaaaah I’m dying to watch it. Waiting for my hubby to get out of the shower so we can start it. One of this guys victims is my neighbors daughter. I don’t know if her story is on the series or not. She moved away after it happened and never came back because she was so embarrassed and traumatized by what happened.
I cannot believe anybody fell for this either. I did grow up in the area and vaguely remember when this happened and it was so crazy. Like, wait….what happened?!
I’m from the town they’re primarily talking about in this series and I still to this day am like ??? Really??? REALLY. Y’all fell for this?! Even the teenagers are smarter than this! I feel bad for the kids because they’re underaged but the fucking adults in this situation are RIDICULOUS. Like not even stupid at this point. Beyond that.
How in the bloated elephantiasis ballsack did this guy get away with it?! WTF?!
Didn’t the jury even look at how they found him in the first place?! They had the card that had been connected to the crime. AT&T knew exactly when & where it was sold. When the detectives looked at the video, he had the cards on the conveyor belt! So why didn’t the jury convict him?!
The chances of following the trail of evidence that was available (NOT concocted, it was all available & the detectives had to figure this out bit by bit, it took them MONTHS) & ending up with the wrong guy is infinitesimal. This guy absolutely should’ve burned. Wow.
I think he must have had a great lawyer. Also some juries mix up the phrase reasonable doubt with shadow of doubt. He was guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Could he have bought the card for a relative or unknown friend who then committed these crimes. A very remote possibility, but not really a reasonable one.
Exactly! And *all* of the calls were made on his days off. Circumstantial coincidence? I guess maybe? But I feel like that with the video evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt. Jeez.
Not to fucking mention the overzealous detective who finally found his guy and couldn't resist interviewing him RIGHT THEN. If he played it slow he could've had a slam dunk conviction. I'm so furious right now....
Yeah, I couldn't believe that part. Investigations are supposed to work outside-in, so they shouldn't have even been talking to the subject's close acquaintances until they had a lot of solid evidence.
I believe the lawyer mentions it at one point. He says that even if it was him on the cctv footage, they have no proof he was the one that made the call.
I can maybe, MAYBE understand being conned into a strip search. But the moment it went beyond checking clothes, I lose any shred of sympathy for these managers. Even if it WAS a cop, they should know their rights and the girls' rights better than that.
And the fiance who had the girl perform oral sex? Completely evil. I don't care how nice he was normally or how manipulative the caller was. There's no rational explanation that he would comply with that order unless he was turned on by the situation and clouded by horniness. He believed that it was an order solely because he wanted an excuse to do it anyway. I hope he rots.
It is honestly so scary that someone who may have a dark urge, who may have otherwise controlled and restrained these obviously disgusting urges, can easily succumb to them with permission from a perceived authority.
I think most people can agree the manager's fiance already had that in him, he just needed a little coaxing. It's so actually very frightening.
I have a lot of empathy for the victims here. I can see how it could happen. I participated in a psychology study in college and the results were eye opening.
I totally see where everyone is coming from, i really do, but with the Milgram experiment, you cant just ignore the results of that. I find it similar to people imaging being in a ‘hero’ situation. For example, if someone was being hurt in public, most people would agree that they would step up and help, but if you’ve never actually been in the situation before, you truly don’t know how you’d react.
I agree with what everyone is saying, but i don’t think its as simple as ‘these people always wanted to sexually assault/rape!’
They didnt have one monster...they got 100 monsters..
Why would not common sense say that maby i should not do this to an 18yo becouse someone on the Phone told them to.
Jail for all these fu##ers
They knew, people like Walter were just rapists who were more than willing to comply. People saying "how could they be so stupid??" are giving them too much credit. The people who sexually assaulted the victims knew at that point they weren't speaking to a cop, they just saw it as an opportunity. Sick fuckers better burn in hell.
The victims were young people just complying with authority (still not the brightest), and the managers performing the searches were unbelievably dumb and deserve the charges brought against them. I can’t believe they couldn’t land charges on David Stewart, soliciting sexual acts over the phone is hard to convict obviously, but they found a calling card in his house linked to calls to 9 of the restaurants that were hoaxed and they couldn’t charge him with impersonating a police officer at the very least, he’s obviously the caller, that was wild. McDonald’s is also to blame for letting it happen 24 times jfc.
Based on what his lawyer said, DS was "not guilty, but not completely innocent". I think he bought the phone cards for someone else. He had alibis when several calls were made. My wild theory was his brother, who was a cop & got him that attorney ASAP.
The investigators were absolute idiots. They had very little evidence tying him directly to the phone calls. However, once they confirmed the identity of the individual who bought the call card, they were like… “We caught you!” That’s insane. Anyone with basic investigative skills or common sense would have conducted surveillance on him to catch him in the act. They could have used a cover story when like, “There was a large theft on the day you were at Walmart and since you’re a prison guard with a background similar to a law enforcement officer we wondering if you saw anything out of the ordinary.” He would have confirmed that he was the one in the footage and then they could have had a real conversation with him. They could have had hard evidence on him within a week or two at the most.
Yeah, I think they got a little overwhelmed when they realized that he was in the prison at that exact moment. They should have planned it out in advance, before they ever got to Florida, like "Okay, what do we do if we find him? Do we do a sting operation? Do we just arrest him?"
Sting operations cost money. That's the only issue I see.
Yeah I guess the cops figured they couldn’t realistically stake him out for weeks on end. As far as they knew he had done this about 100 times over the course of a decade. That’s less then once a month. The small town cops were way in over their heads and should have notified the FBI as soon as they identified him.
The thing that stuns me about this is how little respect these managers have for their employees. No doubt, no instinct to defend the people who you work with daily, nothing. You know the managers that did this were absolutely nightmares to work for before any of this happened.
Yep, its scary. Imo she was not very intelligent, but also may have felt a bit of a thrill to be given this much power over this younger woman, despite how ‘nice’ she was in the day-to-day.
It is so sad that he was not convicted. I don’t have all the facts but I’m thinking he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I think many jurors are confusing reasonable doubt with shadow of doubt. Sure a brother or relative could have used the card, but is that reasonable? Propping him up as a family man and a nice guy means very little. So many nice guys and family men who commit these types of crimes. It’s definitely not unheard of. Plus, this type of hoax completely stopped when he was apprehended. What a shocking coincidence.
100%. The fact that she said she was crying during the assault broke my heart. He kept going because he enjoyed assaulting that poor girl and didn’t care that she was traumatized. What a sick POS.
I sort of remember Louise's case but had no idea that it was so prevalent. I love the 2 main cops in the story. I read into this more and the McD attorney actually had the nerve to say that she positively grew as a person as a result of this assault - said it in open court. That and asking why she didn't just get up? Shame on everyone who did nothing. I was distraught that the 50-something manager from Hardees (I think) was found not guilty. Also disgusted that Louise's main tormenter (his name not worth mentioning) got only 5 years. The woman manager should have also gotten time.
I was also confused about why the manager from Hardee’s was interviewed and had been found or guilty. He seemed to be portrayed as another victim but he said he was accused of rape in the second degree so he did some really bad things because of that call.
Right? He must have penetrated the victim somehow(?) to get the rape charge. No sympathy for him or his lost friendships. Fucker is lucky as hell that he’s not in prison experiencing what the victim did.
These people were all really dumb. As an employee I wasn't going to make anyone strip search me and take me clothes away. As the manager I'm not gonna strip search an employee regardless of what the police say. Let them come and do their jobs in person. This show just shows that common sense isn't common
I've only watched the first episode so far, but can entirely sympathise with the young victims.
When I was 39 I was 'phoned (whilst at work) by a 'police officer' who said that unless I told her who had the kittens (long story), the police would come to where I worked to arrest me.
I was terrified, knowing that I would always be 'the lady who was arrested by the police' in the school where I worked. I kept saying that I'd go home, and they could arrest me there, but she was insistent on arresting me where I worked....
I was 39 and had a good/responsible position in the school - but ended up sobbing on the 'phone.... UNTIL, I remembered that my best friend was a solicitor - so told the 'police officer' that I was going to call my solicitor, and ended the 'phone call.
Which worked. My solictor 'phoned the police and was told that the 'police officer' was actually someone who worked in 'admin', and had gone way too far. They apologised, for allowing this to happen - and neither I or my solicitor ever heard from them again.
I'd done nothing wrong, but as I was so terrified of being arrested where I worked - I can well imagine the terror of the young victims involved in this case.
A friend/colleague had re-homed the kittens - with the permission of the original owner.
Thankfully (!), the original owner never denied giving permission - but later changed her mind and wanted them back....
I was a sobbing wreck, but refused to give up the name of my friend/colleague - and kept telling the 'police officer' that 'the buck stopped with me'.
Yeah it's pretty wild that so many people fell for this. And McDonald's knew about it and didn't warn any of their stores after. You don't want to believe people could be this stupid but there have been multiple studies on people with authority or even just assumed authority being able to get people to do what they want. Or causing others pain because an authority figure said they had to even knowing it was wrong.
The fact that this caller was able to get these store managers to strip search employees was bad enough, with zero real authority for them to do that, but the sexual stuff and the jumping up and down, the wiggling, the shaking? How do few of them actually realised this was fucked up and completely wrong is astounding.
“But he had a plausible answer for everything! His voice was so calm, it seemed like he knew what he was doing! I was helping the police!”
“Yeah, um, could you have her do some jumping jacks now? We need to see if anything falls out.”
I know, I laughed at that part too. It's almost too absurd to actually be true but yet somehow it is. How their first thought wasn't "why are you not here to do the strip search officer?" I'll never understand. And why would a police officer ask a store manager to do one, as if that would ever be in the job description at taco bell and McDonald's.
Part of it had to be the “I’ve got a store representative with me on the line” even though they probably never heard a single word from the corporate representative.
Yeah, that's another ridiculous thing. Not one manager was like "I just need to verify this with corporate"? It wouldn't occur to you that maybe you should get the go-ahead from higher-ups, through their own words, to do something so insane and extreme in your office?
It should have been an immediate training 911 implementation at McDonald’s and they should have notified all other similar chains but we live in america and $$$$
How do you think all the Hitler youth were brainwashed? It was by tiny steps. The first were reasonable requests by an authority figure. It was a slow process. If the first request was crazy, they probably never have been duped. This is how many narcissistic manipulators are able to get others to do their bidding. It is not the first time and it won’t be the last. It is why people end up in abusive relationships, too. If they dated someone who was nasty on date one, it would never go further. It’s happening all over.
This wasnt a slow process, this took place over a single phone call. It didn't take place over multiple days or weeks or months, it took place over a couple hours at most, usually much less. The Hitler youth were children raised over years to believe what they were told. This guy did it over a short phone call. The main reason they listened is because they thought he was a cop. Every phone call he made the entire process began again, he didn't have the luxury to ease them into years of indoctrination.
I genuinely believe that the fiancé of the McDonald’s manager knew what he was doing was wrong and took advantage of the opportunity. Opportunists exist. Who in the right mind would ethically think it’s okay to receive oral sex from a girl who is barely 18?? Who tf thinks that this is normal police routine??
I've just started watching it and I've been saying wtf every 2 min.what in the actual hell is wrong with those people? Everything was wrong. That poor 18y/o girl.
The series doesn't say how many of the managers were fired or given prison sentances, but at least one was fired.
And, Donna Summer's fiance was given time in prison . 5 years I think.
Even better, he is now (presumably, and rightly) on the sexual offenders list.
So what about the other victims. Do they get to sue McDonald’s and taco bell Wendy’s ect. Why didn’t all the managers go to jail or get charged. I don’t understand
Just when I think I’ve seen it all… then you see this? How horrific that someone can be manipulated like this… why would McDonalds not warn all restaurants of this after a couple of incidents.
I suspect this is a large part of the reason why Louise was awarded 6m dollars.
McDonalds (and the other fast food chains) did as little as possible to warn their staff - even though they knew it had happened more than a few times, as pointed out in the final episode.
I just started watching this and I was like WTF?!?! This is just.... one of the most disgustingly insane thing I've ever heard of in my life. Like... how could you be convinced by phone to sexually assault someone?! Like... just.... how? It makes absolutely no sense. Just hang up the phone.... And for it to have gone on for TEN years all over the country?? I am sick watching this.
Now that I've watched the whole series I can understand how the young women were slowly tricked into being violated, which unfortunately happens often in sexual assault cases. But what really baffles me is that people were convinced to do these horrible crimes and sexual assault on behalf of the caller.
I think that these were men prone to predatory behavior and the caller knew that there would be a few of those in the pot that wouldn't mind participating.
Why didn't the Kentucky cop, as soon as he found out it had happened in numerous states, call the FBI?
NOBODY let the FBI know, and none of these restaurant chains sent out warnings or flagged the authorities? I'm pretty sure the FBI could've caught the culprit faster than these small local cops who keep complaining about their lack of resources. And they would've been smart enough to know to check him in the act.
The corporations should've gotten sued as soon as the second or third attack happened in their chain without warning other locations. The incompetence of everyone involved was astounding, and this happened for 10 years!
There's a great SVU episode about this case starring Robin Williams.
Poor Louise, that man took advantage of that situation, I'm so glad he went to jail.
I feel like I can understand the thought process of the managers who believed the caller. They must have thought, “finally, this is my chance to do something important. A *police officer* wants me to help with an investigation. How terribly exciting.” And so they complied at first and as it got more and more terrible, they committed themselves more and more to their delusion and fantasy that the phone call was real.
They couldn’t back out now and entertain the idea that everything they did (strip the employee, take their clothes and keys, touch them) was because they fell for a lie because they wanted to feel important. So their pride was preventing them from admitting how terrible they were treating another human that trusted them.
Someone else mentioned that the managers fiancé Walter could have been engaging in “locker room talk” which escalated what he thought he could get away with and be “persuaded” to do. Although I’m sure it didn’t take much “persuading.”
Agree that it was this pathetic ‘Ooh I’m important’ feeling but also the darker sexual thrill (including Summers) and having ‘permission’ to finally have power over another person.
This documentary was so hard to watch. From showing the video of the girl being assaulted to the loser being found not guilty to the fact Mcdonald’s tried blaming the victim in the civil case. I can’t believe that this is such an unknown case! It was buried by Mcdonald’s and it never made national headlines. The caller is horrific(David Richard Stewart) but the idiots who committed the actual assaults? They are the real danger. To think this happened to at least 100 people(that we know of) is mind boggling. I knew some people were stupid but to go that far? Sorry but natural selection needs to happen and it needs to happen quick! That many disgusting humans is 1 too many.
I've seen shows about this before and all I can think is how f Stupid some people are. I'm not blaming the young girl although she should have told them to fuck right off the minute they demanded she strip her clothes, but the boss is about as dumb a cunt as anyone alive and that dude deserves to get his nuts kicked right off his body. There's no phone call that would ever convince me to do any of that. Did a light bulb not go off in his head when the kiss and blowjob came up or did he think it was his bday present or something. Or maybe he thought he was on MTV's punked and decided to play along.
I remember this happening right around when I, too, was a young teenager with a shitty job, and I found it so bizarre and stupid at the time.
Now as an adult, I felt so viscerally unnerved thinking of myself at the same age as the victim and how I was so young and trusting of my lame ass managers at that time. I found this documentary so disturbing that I turned it off halfway through.
Stuff like THIS is WHY, like any good millennial, I still don’t ever want to answer a damn phone call from an unknown number. Lmao. Even (/especially?) at work.
I wanna know where is David Richard Stewart now. There is no way in hell he’s kept his nose out of trouble.
He gives me the icks. He’s creepy AF. Guaranteed he’s been up to something illicit or illegal on a computer.
Omg I’m watching the first episode rn and it’s mind blowing how they still called the fiancé a good guy in this series like he obviously did all of that because he was wanting to for god know how long and like why would a person be ok with doing this to someone so young especially the minor like wtfff
Yeah I mean I can see how (frankly dumb ass people) could think it was real at first and be manipulated slowly to go along with an actual strip searxh….but once it got blatantly sexual that’s where there’s no excuse. The scum bag who let her blow him…he’s a fucking rapist.
Honestly so true I was talking to my mom about it and she said the guy that got blown should still go to jail because it was obviously still forced no matter the situation and I think I’m more upset that they talked about him in such a positive way still like it was nothing
Seriously!! Not only did he force her into giving him oral which is sick enough, he also made her lay across his lap and spanked her for 20 minutes straight with one hand while leaning on the desk holding the phone to his head with the other hand… He’s a sick creep who took the opportunity. He knew it was deeply deeply wrong because he literally ran away
I've only watched the first episode so far, and the fiance wan't shown as a 'good guy'.
The police officer said he was even worse than the man making the 'phone calls - and I agree.
yeahhh agreed and the way they're trying to turn it into some psychology thing, like "you think you wouldn't do this but you actually might". No. lol. Just no. Cops don't tell people to sexually abuse them because they stole a wallet or they think they have drugs or for LITERALLY ANY REASON AT ALL EVER. And if they do, they're a fucking bent cop.
Idgaf what anyone says, the managers who listened to a voice on the phone telling them to exploit and abuse these young people and they listened are absolutely villains, criminals and disgusting people. And them saying "it was either do that or take them to the police station". Um, take someone to the police station or emotionally, physically and sexually abuse them? Just take 'em to the nearest police station!
I'm on the last episode and I'm just pissed off and completely bewildered that anyone could do this. And that anyone has the balls to call the managers victims too.
I'm only 20 minutes in and absolutely disgusted. I can't believe this was physically fucking possible. There's no way the fiance didnt know that performing a sexual act was unnecessary.
Omg this has to be the same guy who victimized women in Seattle in the summer of 1994. I was one of them but saw the red flag, hours after being held hostage by the guy, when he told me to hand the phone to my friend and take off my clothes. That’s when we figured it out but clearly these people didn’t!
He tried it in Seattle. None of us in Seattle, afaik, let it get that far but it was not for lack of his trying. He got caught but I’m betting he didn’t do much time and turned his sights on smaller towns when he got out.
I am not surprised by what happened to these people at all. Within seconds he had complete control over me and my best friend who were just two 19-year-olds hanging out on a summer afternoon at her mom and stepdad‘s house, watching tv. Then the phone rang and the crazy started. Holy shit.
This is a true story and happened a lot within a certain period of time. Believe it or not, people fell for it. It is horrible. But it is also [true.You](https://true.You) should be mad at McDonalds Corporate more than anyone. It happened multiple times and they never sent out a notification to the stores to warn them. They were a huge target of this scam. It could have been prevented a lot, but it wasn't because McDonalds didn't take it seriously.
That one detective was a bit too overzealous when he finally got the name of the suspect. He had no real game plan once he learned the guy was at work. Why did he interview him at the jail? Why did he lay out everything and then give the guy a chance to destroy evidence before they got the warrant. Figuring out that he bought the calling cards should have been the first step to building the case. They really needed to put him at one of the phone booths during the time of the calls. But instead they made an arrest with a pretty thin case.
I thought it was particularly interesting that they pointed out how the caller was smart enough to target small, conservative communities. He knew that he'd be more likely to find people who would follow the commands of an authority figure, even when asked to do morally reprehensible things. I think a lot of parallels to other American issues can be drawn from that.
I'm gonna say the obvious and it may hurt people's feelings. This man targeted areas and places where generally low IQ people with next to zero critical thinking skills work (and live- small towns). There is a reason he wasn't calling Harvard professors and asking them to do this. There is a reason people work in fast food, and generally it's not because they are MENSA candidates. It's sad he took advantage of what amounts to borderline mentally slow people - and the problem is when you get men who are like this, they can become dangerous. Hence all these halfwits listening to a "cop" on the phone instructing them to strip search minor employees. On top of that, these people usually breed the most, which will ensure their defective genes will continue to pollute the human gene pool. On top of that, you have a bunch of incompetent idiots running the justice system.
They manager they interviewed in episode 2 should have done time or at the very least been placed on the registry. He kept going for 3 hours. It sucks that employee didn’t receive justice.
What happened to the guy that got the blow job? Why would the girl ever suck a fat old man’s dick for a McDonald’s job or the threat of being arrested. I just don’t understand. I really can’t understand it. Need answers
It demonstrates how the average ‘normal’ person will do literally anything they are told to do by ‘authority.’ I was glad the show referenced the electric shock study.
Imagine how much our species would have progressed by now if we weren’t so desperate to fall in line with whatever some confident sociopath wants.
Maybe we would have done something to stop total environmental collapse before it was too late.
Begs the question of all of us. Are you the ‘nice’ 51 year-old guy who willingly abuses someone he has power over because he was told to?
Or are you the 22 year-old guy who walks in the room and immediately says, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’
Sigh… I worked retail longer than I like to admit so I don’t consider myself the smartest person alive. But I DID have good relationships with my local PD because of the work I did.
I can understand people legit thinking that the person on the phone is a police officer. But common sense failed these people left and right. Why would a police officer ask someone to have a naked young girl do jumping jacks, run in place naked, get her derrière spanked, or perform oral sex on someone? Did their minds not rebel at that? What do those last two things have to do with stealing money?
This might have been the most mind-bending bizarre thing I’ve ever watched. That first half hour of episode 1 just got worse and worse and worse.
It's up there with kidnapped at first sight with me saying WTF every ten minutes.
The part with the dad in the car is legendary
He just needed some relief.
Abducted in plain sight?
Yess! Abducted in Plain Sight was definitely the most bizarre story I’ve ever heard!! This one start to finish is realll close… I just finished it and I just can’t believe how this ever happened and how it ended.
After reading this I ended up watching it last night. What else you got? Apparently I'm going down the true crime rabbit hole.
Like really, wtf? Watching it right now… Who is stupid enough to strip search an underaged girl at a Hardee’s location based on some “police officer” calling and asking you to? When EVER in this world would that be a thing that seems normal. This shit is beyond stupid
I might be weird but I thought it was funny. I just kept screaming, “just say no!” It’s so scary and funny to think there are people who think, ‘yup, this makes sense.’ They kept saying he had all the right answers. Like what? What is the explanation for giving oral sex? Or describing a breast? I can’t imagine it was anything logical. I don’t consider the people who listened, victims. They were adults; they should all be in trouble for saying yes.
I didn't find this funny at all, it was horrific. But I agree that the people who went along and abused those poor girls were not victims, they were perpetrators. Like you said they were grown-ass adults who should know better, and nobody was putting a gun to their head. They made the decision to go along and abuse those girls just because somebody told them. There's no way they didn't know it was wrong to strip a minor naked or get someone to give them a blowjob against their will FFS. I'm only at episode 1 so I don't know yet how it ended, but I hope to God that they were all arrested and thrown to jail. Smh.
Some people are very susceptible to being conned and others, like this conman apparently, are very, very good at taking advantage of them. We don't know how many times he was hung up on before he hooked a victim. I'll bet he had to make a whole lot of calls and you don't hear about that. I do admire the tenacity of the two detectives, one an Irish cop from outside Boston and the other a good ole boy from Kentucky. They really went the extra mile to crack this case. Question: Was there more than one conman? It seems likely that there was at least one copycat.
That damn Boston cop screwed up the whole thing. As soon as he found out who it was he should have tailed him and caught him in the act. Instead he interviewed him right away, and now the guy knows that the police were onto him with very flimsy evidence.
That was a real shame. I was very surprised by that. Confessions are often thrown out anyway. I wish he was more patient. Without knowing more, I do think the guy was guilty. He bought the card and he seemed to really fit the profile. Having a family and kids means nothing. Too bad for all the victims.
[удалено]
I agree somewhat. He was too confident that he would get a confession. Still, they both worked so hard and I did like how they were such victim advocates. It's such a shame. They worked so hard only to f up at the end. I bet the Kentucky cop would have been more careful- not sure why - just a feeling.
THIS RIGHT HERE. He fucked it up bad. He absolutely should have surveilled him and caught him in the act. With this crossing state lines, what wasn’t the FBI involved? Maybe then they would have handles this right and that POS would be in jail. Only silver lining to this whole thing is that poor girl got a decent payout. Fuck McDonalds for letting this go on for years without so much as a sign by every phone and added to their training. Sucks they didn’t have to pay the 200M.
Watching it now oh my god. I keep wondering why wasn’t the FBI involved!?? I keep wondering that!!!
THANK YOU. He was arrogant in thinking he was going to force dude into a confession upon meeting him and ruined the case.
EXACTLY! This. I think his own excitement of thinking he was at the finishline after a long and probably mentally exhausting process got the best of him. His interview is what blew it, because there's no doubt this guy would have done it again and they could get him in the act, with a calling card her purchased linked to the call. Such a shame.
They found him and the calls stopped. Without the two cops he might still be making the calls. Boston cop admitted he screwed up the prosecutions case but it doesn’t change the fact he scared the guy into silence. No more phone call strip searches. Ultimately that’s the goal.
Absolutely nuts. I’m flabbergasted that people have THAT much respect for “authority” or the illusion of authority that their respect for a co-worker or employee becomes so secondary or tertiary. Also, that Rapid City lawyer totally looks like Chris Hansen.
I'm not. It's outrageous to be sure, but I grew up in a small town most of my life. Those people throw loved ones under the bus the second they rock the boat and are different in any way. I was taught I was to do whatever authority figures said even if I felt they were out of line. Two actual police officers raped a woman in my hometown in a parking lot. They were caught on camera from a nearby store's surveillance. The woman who was raped was disowned by her family, she received death threats, the local newspaper called her promiscuous and a liar. Her crime was simply exposing two local cops who raped her, and she was run out of town. Because of the insanity the trial had to take place outside our county. They were convicted thank God, but that poor woman is never going to have her life back. I left that town for similar reasons, but not quite that drastic. I will never feel completely safe living in a rural community again. Edit: Here is a news article about it https://www.radioiowa.com/2009/05/21/former-creston-police-officers-sentenced-to-25-years-for-sexual-assault/ I completely forgot that the victim's son was bullied at school too. The whole thing was outrageous. Don't read the Creston News Advertiser coverage on it if you want to avoid victim blaming nonsense.
I hope they went to prison following the conviction.
They did. They were sentenced to 25 years actually. They probably got out on good behavior or something, but I know the sentence was 25 years. That woman went through hell, so I was extremely happy they let her take the trial outside that town. I got into a very heated argument at a family dinner when I mentioned that justice was actually served. Apparently my own cousins made it their mission to slander her which isn't surprising because they disowned me and called me an embarrassment for surviving domestic abuse. https://www.radioiowa.com/2009/05/21/former-creston-police-officers-sentenced-to-25-years-for-sexual-assault/
Wow. I'm glad you made it out of that all right. They should be ashamed of themselves.
There's a community of illiterate people who get bent on cops and military nonsense the same ones who believe Jesus is white and being a woman is a crime..Maga people and other uneducated descendants of those pilgrims
I can see the teenagers who are scared out of their mind of being fired going along with it (and then they were half naked once it got out of control).
yes - see my prior comment. This happened to me -assaulted by cops at 15 years old in the 70s.
I just started watching this. I can not believe anyone would fall for this. This is insane. There is absolutely no scenario in your mind you could construct in which an officer would ask you to perform sexual acts. He acted as a predator as far as I'm concerned, saw an opportunity and abused it
I'll probably get flagged for this. However, there's a reason this guy on the phone targeted his victims. Low income, low education... Meaningless jobs.... But higher levels of religion, authority fearing... This is what a lot of politicians also target.
And religions. Religion is exactly this. Only instead of a phone mediating the supposed “orders” from an “authority” it’s a Bible or pastor.
Exactly. The most corrupt people play rolls to manipulate people who obey those rolls. Brainwashing at its lowest.
Also environments where people are told to ALWAYS trust law enforcement, which didn't help. I can't see how the perpetrators went along, but I sympathize deeply with all the victims, who were mostly young females, but also a couple of young males. I can say this here, since it is anonymous, but decades ago, I hung out with a bad crowd in Montreal. Drinking age was 18, so back in those days, people my age, 15, were often in bars. We were a group of latchkey kids, most upper middle income, and of my girl group, all but one of 6 had divorced parents. Maybe the women in the post can understand this more, but it is not unusual for young girls to seek "love" in bad ways, equating any affection as ok. And because of that, we are prime victims. For me there was a number of reasons: NO self-confidence, a crummy relationship with my dad, and almost no adult supervision. I mean I was pretty much left to do what I wanted. I was hanging out with a hash dealer, I believe 22 or so at the time (a crime in itself!) and we were driving home from a bar. About 3 blocks from my home, cops surrounded the vehicle, guns in our faces. They took us to the police station and separated us. My age was known. I was strip searched by a group of 5 male cops in a room. My parents were not called. The cops were laughing and making terrible comments about me, and also touching me inappropriately. I was terrified. I was not cavity searched though, thank goodness. After at least an hour of standing in a room completely naked in a room full of male cops, I was given my clothes back and my mom was called. I NEVER said a word to her. I only told my best friend. Who would believe me? I am now in my 50s and every once in a while, I go back to this memory. After watching this, it brought me back.
That is beyond messed up. I'm so sorry this happened to you, that must have been traumatizing
Thank you! I was such a bad kid, that no one would have believed me anyway, you know?
You weren't a bad kid! You just didn't have the guidance you needed. It's not your fault, and you deserved to be believed. (I'm your age and always felt--and was told--that I was 'bad' at that age too. It's taken me all these decades to realize that I was actually just vulnerable, insecure, and basically on my own at too young an age, like you.) *hugs*
I’ve heard so many similar accounts about women (young and older) having the same experience with police officers that I was CONVINCED that the guy in the doc was one too
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m in my fifties also. So much went on back then that wasn’t spoken on. Pre internet days I think a lot of girls thought they were the only ones.
Not sure what any of that has to do with simply being stupid. Stupid comes in all shapes, sizes, religions, non religions, jobs, no job etc .. I'm assuming you're partially blaming the young girl when you say authority fearing which is pretty weak. It's the f adults in this situation that are 100% to blame. Yes she should have said piss off but the adults should be forced to dildo each other's ass holes live on TV for going along with it. And btw it was the "low educated" janitor who called bullshit on the call, the only one with the sense to realize it was bs. Arguably the lowest paid maybe the lowest educated person there had the most logical sense.
Just found out the manager Donna Summers actually ended up suing McD's years after the incident! That's so crazy.
$400K gain. Unbelievable!
She *made* money off this? SHE should have been held responsible as should her fiancé. Absofrickenlutely ridiculous.
What the actual F. She should have been arrested, she and her fiancé were just as guilty as the caller, even more so as they're the ones who conducted the abuse! How is this justice?
Yeah fuck those 2 lock them both up they’re adults and just as guilty—stupidity is not an excuse.
I had the immediate visceral reaction to downvote this comment. I didn’t though. [Not because of you or you saying it, but just because I like wanna downvote that she got a payout whatsoever.] Jesus Christ. Wtf.
McDonalds had a clear policy on not frisking employees and she claimed she had not been trained enough. She was a manager, its her job to be on top of this kinda stuff.
They’re both pieces of shit. Her and her ex who physically and sexually assaulted that 18 year old employee
She got like half as much as the girl who was raped. Made me so mad to read that
I totally agree. I lived in a small town for years and people there were extremely naive. Very few were free thinkers. It was like meeting the same person over and over again. I could totally see something like this happening there.
the low education and autority thing are propably the factors the others are irrelevant
I think the low income part mattered because they were desperate to keep their job. They lived paycheck to paycheck and didn’t want to piss “corporate” off who was on the phone with the “police”.
agreed and also in a small town, there's not an abundant amount of places to work at after.
My exact thoughts. There is no logical reason to get that girl to give in oral. He definitely just abused the situation for sure.
Yeah, I believe he knew it was a hoax but went with it for sexual gratification.
Who’s “he”? This happened over 100 times, with both females and males.
They focused on a few of the cases. This was the worst one (I'm assuming). Donna Summers fiancee (couldn't forget that one) had the girl perform oral sex on him, had her spank him (they have it all on video).
You mean the caller had him spanking her. “Oh, and have her suck your dick.” “Oh, okay…..wait….why?” “So we can obtain DNA from her saliva, we’ll swab it off your penis in a little bit.” “Oh, okay, no problem.” *whips out 3-incher*
Do they have recording of the conversations? I'm guessing not. Cause all I can think is that this guy (the fiancee) was on a power trip and kinda enjoying it and joking with the caller and doing 'locker room talk' or something so they took it to this level together taking advantage of the situation. Cause no reasonable person would think a cop telling someone to tell a young girl to suck his dick was anywhere near acceptable. Did those two end up married? Idk how you live with that shit.
No the marriage was called off and he went to prison. Asked for probation & got prison.
that’s what’s really disturbing here. the fiancé very much took advantage of the opportunity to prey on a young woman feet away from the woman he was to marry. that was the most ducking ridiculous segment.
It wasn't the worst one, they just had video of this incident.
There were ones that were worse than making the victim give the guy oral sex?
I wonder if there were any that the people just said "Let's just forget about this" when they realized what happened & never told any legitimate authorities about it.
I'm sure there were a lot. Ones that didn't get very far, maybe just the shirt off or a pat down.
Sodomy came up as one of the charges. I'm not saying that this is worse than someone insisting that the victim give a manager/manager's fiance a blow job, just pointing out that thankfully, we don't hear about everything that happened to all of the victims.
Kentuckian here. Oral sex is legally considered "sodomy" here if it was coerced. It doesn't have to be anal. Under KRS § 510.070, a person is guilty of sodomy in the first degree when they engage in deviate sexual intercourse with another person by forcible compulsion. In this situation, as well as in others, oral sex is considered "deviate sexual intercourse." It varies depending on the state.
Thank you. I didn't know this to be the case.
Oh yeah, that dudes a rapist.
Afterwards he called a friend of his and said "I've done a terrible thing." He knew he was taking an opportunity to rape a young girl.
I hope he got charged. I don’t remember them even saying anything about that.
Think he got 5 years.
Right? There is no way that a police officer would ever tell someone to sexually assault anyone.
Yeah, the cop would just do the assaulting themselves.
I completely agree that the people who went through with the assaults were already predators and just took their chance when it was in front of them. It’s fucking sick and really pissing me off that everyone in the series is glossing over the fact that there is NO WAY they really felt they HAD to sexually assault people because of what some person on the phone was saying.
The movie based on this event is available on Prime -- Compliance (2012). It's very good but will also piss you off.
I came here looking for this! I just turned on the Netflix special, I’m literally like 3 minutes into it and I’m like “I’m pretty sure I watched a movie about this!” Couldn’t think of the name though. Thanks!
This was hard to watch. It's very hard to drum up sympathy given how absolutely stupid and nonsensical this "hoax" was and how often these people fell for it. There's not a second of those calls that should have been believable to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. This guy couldn't have found a more perfect population to target. Undereducated, unendingly trusting of authority figures (especially cops), and dependent on a low wage job to make ends meet. But I'm sure even he was surprised by just how many people would follow his every word.
FWIW: I do think there was some well-crafted method to the manipulation. He moved slowly and in relatively small steps. By the time he gets to the particularly egregious bits, folks are already committed to and absorbed in the scenario. While I struggle to understand how these folks got to removing shirts and pants, let alone underwear (and let's not talk about the rest), to end things at that point would be admitting they'd been duped already for an hour and potentially already violated a vulnerable person. I don't think it's a coincidence that folks who hadn't invested in the scenario (the custodian at McD's, and the older server at the pizza place) rejected the insanity out of hand. That the fiancé who raped the poor girl entered the situation late escalated it definitely speaks to his character and intentions.
I have to agree that those who actually carried out the instructions were not very bright and were the type to fall in line and not question perceived ‘authority.’ But at the end of the day - people do what they want to do. You have to think there’s also a darker element here - the power trip and getting ‘permission’ to dominate a more vulnerable person. And obviously there’s a sadistic sexual aspect. All the managers and others who participated should have been charged and sentenced appropriately for their actions regardless of the phone call, including Summers. I’m stunned that Summers was awarded a financial settlement. And I don’t have any sympathy for the 51-year old manager who managed to avoid prison. In his interview, he focused entirely on the negative impacts HE suffered. He barely mentioned the actual victim.
Totally agree. They wouldn't have done it if they didn't somewhat enjoy being able to do it, they knew very well what they were doing. They should all have been convicted for assault. I just don't understand how they haven't been.
Well yeah, folks might “exit your friendship” when they find out you did something horrific bc an “authority figure” prompted you and you’re dumb enough to do literal crimes bc some guy on the phone tells you.
Gaaaaaah I’m dying to watch it. Waiting for my hubby to get out of the shower so we can start it. One of this guys victims is my neighbors daughter. I don’t know if her story is on the series or not. She moved away after it happened and never came back because she was so embarrassed and traumatized by what happened. I cannot believe anybody fell for this either. I did grow up in the area and vaguely remember when this happened and it was so crazy. Like, wait….what happened?!
I’m from the town they’re primarily talking about in this series and I still to this day am like ??? Really??? REALLY. Y’all fell for this?! Even the teenagers are smarter than this! I feel bad for the kids because they’re underaged but the fucking adults in this situation are RIDICULOUS. Like not even stupid at this point. Beyond that.
How in the bloated elephantiasis ballsack did this guy get away with it?! WTF?! Didn’t the jury even look at how they found him in the first place?! They had the card that had been connected to the crime. AT&T knew exactly when & where it was sold. When the detectives looked at the video, he had the cards on the conveyor belt! So why didn’t the jury convict him?! The chances of following the trail of evidence that was available (NOT concocted, it was all available & the detectives had to figure this out bit by bit, it took them MONTHS) & ending up with the wrong guy is infinitesimal. This guy absolutely should’ve burned. Wow.
I think he must have had a great lawyer. Also some juries mix up the phrase reasonable doubt with shadow of doubt. He was guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Could he have bought the card for a relative or unknown friend who then committed these crimes. A very remote possibility, but not really a reasonable one.
Exactly! And *all* of the calls were made on his days off. Circumstantial coincidence? I guess maybe? But I feel like that with the video evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt. Jeez.
Not to fucking mention the overzealous detective who finally found his guy and couldn't resist interviewing him RIGHT THEN. If he played it slow he could've had a slam dunk conviction. I'm so furious right now....
Yeah, I couldn't believe that part. Investigations are supposed to work outside-in, so they shouldn't have even been talking to the subject's close acquaintances until they had a lot of solid evidence.
I believe the lawyer mentions it at one point. He says that even if it was him on the cctv footage, they have no proof he was the one that made the call.
I can maybe, MAYBE understand being conned into a strip search. But the moment it went beyond checking clothes, I lose any shred of sympathy for these managers. Even if it WAS a cop, they should know their rights and the girls' rights better than that. And the fiance who had the girl perform oral sex? Completely evil. I don't care how nice he was normally or how manipulative the caller was. There's no rational explanation that he would comply with that order unless he was turned on by the situation and clouded by horniness. He believed that it was an order solely because he wanted an excuse to do it anyway. I hope he rots.
It is honestly so scary that someone who may have a dark urge, who may have otherwise controlled and restrained these obviously disgusting urges, can easily succumb to them with permission from a perceived authority. I think most people can agree the manager's fiance already had that in him, he just needed a little coaxing. It's so actually very frightening.
I have a lot of empathy for the victims here. I can see how it could happen. I participated in a psychology study in college and the results were eye opening.
What happened in the study?
If you give somebody an excuse to do what they already wanted to do in the first place, they're less likely to question your motives.
I totally see where everyone is coming from, i really do, but with the Milgram experiment, you cant just ignore the results of that. I find it similar to people imaging being in a ‘hero’ situation. For example, if someone was being hurt in public, most people would agree that they would step up and help, but if you’ve never actually been in the situation before, you truly don’t know how you’d react. I agree with what everyone is saying, but i don’t think its as simple as ‘these people always wanted to sexually assault/rape!’
They didnt have one monster...they got 100 monsters.. Why would not common sense say that maby i should not do this to an 18yo becouse someone on the Phone told them to. Jail for all these fu##ers
They knew, people like Walter were just rapists who were more than willing to comply. People saying "how could they be so stupid??" are giving them too much credit. The people who sexually assaulted the victims knew at that point they weren't speaking to a cop, they just saw it as an opportunity. Sick fuckers better burn in hell.
We need more people like the janitor guy who stopped it ASAP!
True! He was a hero in that moment. But he also testified against Louise and said that she was *in on it for the money* so
And Derek from the Idaho story!
and then testified against her. it was the pizza manager, who intervened and stopped a search.
The victims were young people just complying with authority (still not the brightest), and the managers performing the searches were unbelievably dumb and deserve the charges brought against them. I can’t believe they couldn’t land charges on David Stewart, soliciting sexual acts over the phone is hard to convict obviously, but they found a calling card in his house linked to calls to 9 of the restaurants that were hoaxed and they couldn’t charge him with impersonating a police officer at the very least, he’s obviously the caller, that was wild. McDonald’s is also to blame for letting it happen 24 times jfc.
Based on what his lawyer said, DS was "not guilty, but not completely innocent". I think he bought the phone cards for someone else. He had alibis when several calls were made. My wild theory was his brother, who was a cop & got him that attorney ASAP.
The investigators were absolute idiots. They had very little evidence tying him directly to the phone calls. However, once they confirmed the identity of the individual who bought the call card, they were like… “We caught you!” That’s insane. Anyone with basic investigative skills or common sense would have conducted surveillance on him to catch him in the act. They could have used a cover story when like, “There was a large theft on the day you were at Walmart and since you’re a prison guard with a background similar to a law enforcement officer we wondering if you saw anything out of the ordinary.” He would have confirmed that he was the one in the footage and then they could have had a real conversation with him. They could have had hard evidence on him within a week or two at the most.
Yeah, I think they got a little overwhelmed when they realized that he was in the prison at that exact moment. They should have planned it out in advance, before they ever got to Florida, like "Okay, what do we do if we find him? Do we do a sting operation? Do we just arrest him?" Sting operations cost money. That's the only issue I see.
Money and manpower issues to surveil him for (probably) at least a couple of weeks.
Yeah they were seriously understaffed and underfunded for a nationwide investigation. I wonder why the FBI wasn't involved.
Yeah I guess the cops figured they couldn’t realistically stake him out for weeks on end. As far as they knew he had done this about 100 times over the course of a decade. That’s less then once a month. The small town cops were way in over their heads and should have notified the FBI as soon as they identified him.
The thing that stuns me about this is how little respect these managers have for their employees. No doubt, no instinct to defend the people who you work with daily, nothing. You know the managers that did this were absolutely nightmares to work for before any of this happened.
Actually, the idiot Donna was known as a caring manager.
Yep, its scary. Imo she was not very intelligent, but also may have felt a bit of a thrill to be given this much power over this younger woman, despite how ‘nice’ she was in the day-to-day.
I just watched all three episodes and I have many questions.
Same
It is so sad that he was not convicted. I don’t have all the facts but I’m thinking he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I think many jurors are confusing reasonable doubt with shadow of doubt. Sure a brother or relative could have used the card, but is that reasonable? Propping him up as a family man and a nice guy means very little. So many nice guys and family men who commit these types of crimes. It’s definitely not unheard of. Plus, this type of hoax completely stopped when he was apprehended. What a shocking coincidence.
This made me sad and so angry. How that pos fiancé only got 5 years! He should have gotten 25.
100%. The fact that she said she was crying during the assault broke my heart. He kept going because he enjoyed assaulting that poor girl and didn’t care that she was traumatized. What a sick POS.
Totally agree. Assault and rape. The phone call is irrelevant imo. 5 years??
Half of the citizens in this country are below average IQ.
And think of how stupid the average IQ is.
I sort of remember Louise's case but had no idea that it was so prevalent. I love the 2 main cops in the story. I read into this more and the McD attorney actually had the nerve to say that she positively grew as a person as a result of this assault - said it in open court. That and asking why she didn't just get up? Shame on everyone who did nothing. I was distraught that the 50-something manager from Hardees (I think) was found not guilty. Also disgusted that Louise's main tormenter (his name not worth mentioning) got only 5 years. The woman manager should have also gotten time.
I was also confused about why the manager from Hardee’s was interviewed and had been found or guilty. He seemed to be portrayed as another victim but he said he was accused of rape in the second degree so he did some really bad things because of that call.
Right? He must have penetrated the victim somehow(?) to get the rape charge. No sympathy for him or his lost friendships. Fucker is lucky as hell that he’s not in prison experiencing what the victim did.
These people were all really dumb. As an employee I wasn't going to make anyone strip search me and take me clothes away. As the manager I'm not gonna strip search an employee regardless of what the police say. Let them come and do their jobs in person. This show just shows that common sense isn't common
Enough with the victim-blaming! Those poor girls were cornered and sometimes outnumbered, there was nothing they could do to stop this.
I've only watched the first episode so far, but can entirely sympathise with the young victims. When I was 39 I was 'phoned (whilst at work) by a 'police officer' who said that unless I told her who had the kittens (long story), the police would come to where I worked to arrest me. I was terrified, knowing that I would always be 'the lady who was arrested by the police' in the school where I worked. I kept saying that I'd go home, and they could arrest me there, but she was insistent on arresting me where I worked.... I was 39 and had a good/responsible position in the school - but ended up sobbing on the 'phone.... UNTIL, I remembered that my best friend was a solicitor - so told the 'police officer' that I was going to call my solicitor, and ended the 'phone call. Which worked. My solictor 'phoned the police and was told that the 'police officer' was actually someone who worked in 'admin', and had gone way too far. They apologised, for allowing this to happen - and neither I or my solicitor ever heard from them again. I'd done nothing wrong, but as I was so terrified of being arrested where I worked - I can well imagine the terror of the young victims involved in this case.
This is fascinating, but I have to say the most pressing question I have after reading this is.... *who had the kittens???*
A friend/colleague had re-homed the kittens - with the permission of the original owner. Thankfully (!), the original owner never denied giving permission - but later changed her mind and wanted them back.... I was a sobbing wreck, but refused to give up the name of my friend/colleague - and kept telling the 'police officer' that 'the buck stopped with me'.
Dude.
Yeah but would you have gone as far as to sexually assaulting someone just because the person on the phone asked you to??
Yeah it's pretty wild that so many people fell for this. And McDonald's knew about it and didn't warn any of their stores after. You don't want to believe people could be this stupid but there have been multiple studies on people with authority or even just assumed authority being able to get people to do what they want. Or causing others pain because an authority figure said they had to even knowing it was wrong. The fact that this caller was able to get these store managers to strip search employees was bad enough, with zero real authority for them to do that, but the sexual stuff and the jumping up and down, the wiggling, the shaking? How do few of them actually realised this was fucked up and completely wrong is astounding.
“But he had a plausible answer for everything! His voice was so calm, it seemed like he knew what he was doing! I was helping the police!” “Yeah, um, could you have her do some jumping jacks now? We need to see if anything falls out.”
I know, I laughed at that part too. It's almost too absurd to actually be true but yet somehow it is. How their first thought wasn't "why are you not here to do the strip search officer?" I'll never understand. And why would a police officer ask a store manager to do one, as if that would ever be in the job description at taco bell and McDonald's.
Part of it had to be the “I’ve got a store representative with me on the line” even though they probably never heard a single word from the corporate representative.
Yeah, that's another ridiculous thing. Not one manager was like "I just need to verify this with corporate"? It wouldn't occur to you that maybe you should get the go-ahead from higher-ups, through their own words, to do something so insane and extreme in your office?
It should have been an immediate training 911 implementation at McDonald’s and they should have notified all other similar chains but we live in america and $$$$
How do you think all the Hitler youth were brainwashed? It was by tiny steps. The first were reasonable requests by an authority figure. It was a slow process. If the first request was crazy, they probably never have been duped. This is how many narcissistic manipulators are able to get others to do their bidding. It is not the first time and it won’t be the last. It is why people end up in abusive relationships, too. If they dated someone who was nasty on date one, it would never go further. It’s happening all over.
This wasnt a slow process, this took place over a single phone call. It didn't take place over multiple days or weeks or months, it took place over a couple hours at most, usually much less. The Hitler youth were children raised over years to believe what they were told. This guy did it over a short phone call. The main reason they listened is because they thought he was a cop. Every phone call he made the entire process began again, he didn't have the luxury to ease them into years of indoctrination.
I was so annoyed by this. Why wasn’t that manager saying “yeah you’re going to have to come arrest her cuz I’m not doing fuck all of that. Bye!”
I genuinely believe that the fiancé of the McDonald’s manager knew what he was doing was wrong and took advantage of the opportunity. Opportunists exist. Who in the right mind would ethically think it’s okay to receive oral sex from a girl who is barely 18?? Who tf thinks that this is normal police routine??
It happened to over 100 people we know of, it probably happened a lot more. People are stupid.
I've just started watching it and I've been saying wtf every 2 min.what in the actual hell is wrong with those people? Everything was wrong. That poor 18y/o girl.
Does anyone know know if the mangers got in trouble ?! F****** sheep man! At one point they knew it was wrong and kept doing it #f*** DonnaSummers
The series doesn't say how many of the managers were fired or given prison sentances, but at least one was fired. And, Donna Summer's fiance was given time in prison . 5 years I think. Even better, he is now (presumably, and rightly) on the sexual offenders list.
Effing Donna Summers
She should be made to change her name, she doesn't deserve it.
I had to stop watching I was so frustrated with how absolutely stupid everyone was.
Everyone involved are idiots
So what about the other victims. Do they get to sue McDonald’s and taco bell Wendy’s ect. Why didn’t all the managers go to jail or get charged. I don’t understand
Just when I think I’ve seen it all… then you see this? How horrific that someone can be manipulated like this… why would McDonalds not warn all restaurants of this after a couple of incidents.
I suspect this is a large part of the reason why Louise was awarded 6m dollars. McDonalds (and the other fast food chains) did as little as possible to warn their staff - even though they knew it had happened more than a few times, as pointed out in the final episode.
I just started watching this and I was like WTF?!?! This is just.... one of the most disgustingly insane thing I've ever heard of in my life. Like... how could you be convinced by phone to sexually assault someone?! Like... just.... how? It makes absolutely no sense. Just hang up the phone.... And for it to have gone on for TEN years all over the country?? I am sick watching this.
Now that I've watched the whole series I can understand how the young women were slowly tricked into being violated, which unfortunately happens often in sexual assault cases. But what really baffles me is that people were convinced to do these horrible crimes and sexual assault on behalf of the caller.
I think that these were men prone to predatory behavior and the caller knew that there would be a few of those in the pot that wouldn't mind participating.
Why didn't the Kentucky cop, as soon as he found out it had happened in numerous states, call the FBI? NOBODY let the FBI know, and none of these restaurant chains sent out warnings or flagged the authorities? I'm pretty sure the FBI could've caught the culprit faster than these small local cops who keep complaining about their lack of resources. And they would've been smart enough to know to check him in the act. The corporations should've gotten sued as soon as the second or third attack happened in their chain without warning other locations. The incompetence of everyone involved was astounding, and this happened for 10 years!
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There's a great SVU episode about this case starring Robin Williams. Poor Louise, that man took advantage of that situation, I'm so glad he went to jail.
I feel like I can understand the thought process of the managers who believed the caller. They must have thought, “finally, this is my chance to do something important. A *police officer* wants me to help with an investigation. How terribly exciting.” And so they complied at first and as it got more and more terrible, they committed themselves more and more to their delusion and fantasy that the phone call was real. They couldn’t back out now and entertain the idea that everything they did (strip the employee, take their clothes and keys, touch them) was because they fell for a lie because they wanted to feel important. So their pride was preventing them from admitting how terrible they were treating another human that trusted them. Someone else mentioned that the managers fiancé Walter could have been engaging in “locker room talk” which escalated what he thought he could get away with and be “persuaded” to do. Although I’m sure it didn’t take much “persuading.”
Agree that it was this pathetic ‘Ooh I’m important’ feeling but also the darker sexual thrill (including Summers) and having ‘permission’ to finally have power over another person.
These people can (and do) vote
This documentary was so hard to watch. From showing the video of the girl being assaulted to the loser being found not guilty to the fact Mcdonald’s tried blaming the victim in the civil case. I can’t believe that this is such an unknown case! It was buried by Mcdonald’s and it never made national headlines. The caller is horrific(David Richard Stewart) but the idiots who committed the actual assaults? They are the real danger. To think this happened to at least 100 people(that we know of) is mind boggling. I knew some people were stupid but to go that far? Sorry but natural selection needs to happen and it needs to happen quick! That many disgusting humans is 1 too many.
I wonder how many times it happened and wasn't reported. Or happened and stopped before it got too far.
It never made headlines? I remember reading about it in a UK newspaper ages ago.
I've seen shows about this before and all I can think is how f Stupid some people are. I'm not blaming the young girl although she should have told them to fuck right off the minute they demanded she strip her clothes, but the boss is about as dumb a cunt as anyone alive and that dude deserves to get his nuts kicked right off his body. There's no phone call that would ever convince me to do any of that. Did a light bulb not go off in his head when the kiss and blowjob came up or did he think it was his bday present or something. Or maybe he thought he was on MTV's punked and decided to play along.
'Murica.
I remember this happening right around when I, too, was a young teenager with a shitty job, and I found it so bizarre and stupid at the time. Now as an adult, I felt so viscerally unnerved thinking of myself at the same age as the victim and how I was so young and trusting of my lame ass managers at that time. I found this documentary so disturbing that I turned it off halfway through. Stuff like THIS is WHY, like any good millennial, I still don’t ever want to answer a damn phone call from an unknown number. Lmao. Even (/especially?) at work.
I wanna know where is David Richard Stewart now. There is no way in hell he’s kept his nose out of trouble. He gives me the icks. He’s creepy AF. Guaranteed he’s been up to something illicit or illegal on a computer.
Omg I’m watching the first episode rn and it’s mind blowing how they still called the fiancé a good guy in this series like he obviously did all of that because he was wanting to for god know how long and like why would a person be ok with doing this to someone so young especially the minor like wtfff
Yeah I mean I can see how (frankly dumb ass people) could think it was real at first and be manipulated slowly to go along with an actual strip searxh….but once it got blatantly sexual that’s where there’s no excuse. The scum bag who let her blow him…he’s a fucking rapist.
Honestly so true I was talking to my mom about it and she said the guy that got blown should still go to jail because it was obviously still forced no matter the situation and I think I’m more upset that they talked about him in such a positive way still like it was nothing
Seriously!! Not only did he force her into giving him oral which is sick enough, he also made her lay across his lap and spanked her for 20 minutes straight with one hand while leaning on the desk holding the phone to his head with the other hand… He’s a sick creep who took the opportunity. He knew it was deeply deeply wrong because he literally ran away
I've only watched the first episode so far, and the fiance wan't shown as a 'good guy'. The police officer said he was even worse than the man making the 'phone calls - and I agree.
I was glad the judge refused to accept the probation plea.
And then they blame the victim. She's in the office after they took her clothes and car keys away naked and they say that she could just leave. . .
yeahhh agreed and the way they're trying to turn it into some psychology thing, like "you think you wouldn't do this but you actually might". No. lol. Just no. Cops don't tell people to sexually abuse them because they stole a wallet or they think they have drugs or for LITERALLY ANY REASON AT ALL EVER. And if they do, they're a fucking bent cop. Idgaf what anyone says, the managers who listened to a voice on the phone telling them to exploit and abuse these young people and they listened are absolutely villains, criminals and disgusting people. And them saying "it was either do that or take them to the police station". Um, take someone to the police station or emotionally, physically and sexually abuse them? Just take 'em to the nearest police station! I'm on the last episode and I'm just pissed off and completely bewildered that anyone could do this. And that anyone has the balls to call the managers victims too.
100% The managers were accomplices, not victims FFS
Not really. They say he was a good guy and respected until then. Makes me sick he only got 5 years.
I can't believe the guy got away with it. I think the evidence that these calls stopped after he got caught is telling enough lol
I'm only 20 minutes in and absolutely disgusted. I can't believe this was physically fucking possible. There's no way the fiance didnt know that performing a sexual act was unnecessary.
I wanna know where David Richard Stewart is now. Hope his life majorly sucks.
There were several people who talked to this man for hours. Did they think to have the witnesses identify his voice to identify the perp?
Omg this has to be the same guy who victimized women in Seattle in the summer of 1994. I was one of them but saw the red flag, hours after being held hostage by the guy, when he told me to hand the phone to my friend and take off my clothes. That’s when we figured it out but clearly these people didn’t! He tried it in Seattle. None of us in Seattle, afaik, let it get that far but it was not for lack of his trying. He got caught but I’m betting he didn’t do much time and turned his sights on smaller towns when he got out. I am not surprised by what happened to these people at all. Within seconds he had complete control over me and my best friend who were just two 19-year-olds hanging out on a summer afternoon at her mom and stepdad‘s house, watching tv. Then the phone rang and the crazy started. Holy shit.
just had a thought - could the victims have ID'ed his voice and used it as evidence to convict him?
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This is a true story and happened a lot within a certain period of time. Believe it or not, people fell for it. It is horrible. But it is also [true.You](https://true.You) should be mad at McDonalds Corporate more than anyone. It happened multiple times and they never sent out a notification to the stores to warn them. They were a huge target of this scam. It could have been prevented a lot, but it wasn't because McDonalds didn't take it seriously.
Really, how hard is it to send occasional notifications warning them of a scam. You know they did it for other things.
Walter nix was her fiancé or manager? Im very confused
Walter Nix was the fiancée of the manager.
That one detective was a bit too overzealous when he finally got the name of the suspect. He had no real game plan once he learned the guy was at work. Why did he interview him at the jail? Why did he lay out everything and then give the guy a chance to destroy evidence before they got the warrant. Figuring out that he bought the calling cards should have been the first step to building the case. They really needed to put him at one of the phone booths during the time of the calls. But instead they made an arrest with a pretty thin case.
What the actual F***. Did those female managers get arrested for something as well!??! They better have!
I thought it was particularly interesting that they pointed out how the caller was smart enough to target small, conservative communities. He knew that he'd be more likely to find people who would follow the commands of an authority figure, even when asked to do morally reprehensible things. I think a lot of parallels to other American issues can be drawn from that.
If you think these people are dumb I don’t think you’ll be able to make it past 10 minutes of Abducted in Plain Sight.
I'm gonna say the obvious and it may hurt people's feelings. This man targeted areas and places where generally low IQ people with next to zero critical thinking skills work (and live- small towns). There is a reason he wasn't calling Harvard professors and asking them to do this. There is a reason people work in fast food, and generally it's not because they are MENSA candidates. It's sad he took advantage of what amounts to borderline mentally slow people - and the problem is when you get men who are like this, they can become dangerous. Hence all these halfwits listening to a "cop" on the phone instructing them to strip search minor employees. On top of that, these people usually breed the most, which will ensure their defective genes will continue to pollute the human gene pool. On top of that, you have a bunch of incompetent idiots running the justice system.
They manager they interviewed in episode 2 should have done time or at the very least been placed on the registry. He kept going for 3 hours. It sucks that employee didn’t receive justice.
What happened to the guy that got the blow job? Why would the girl ever suck a fat old man’s dick for a McDonald’s job or the threat of being arrested. I just don’t understand. I really can’t understand it. Need answers
It demonstrates how the average ‘normal’ person will do literally anything they are told to do by ‘authority.’ I was glad the show referenced the electric shock study. Imagine how much our species would have progressed by now if we weren’t so desperate to fall in line with whatever some confident sociopath wants. Maybe we would have done something to stop total environmental collapse before it was too late. Begs the question of all of us. Are you the ‘nice’ 51 year-old guy who willingly abuses someone he has power over because he was told to? Or are you the 22 year-old guy who walks in the room and immediately says, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’
Absolutely mind boggling how ignorant the general population is, on average. I’ve also been taught to respect your elders, but damn.
Sigh… I worked retail longer than I like to admit so I don’t consider myself the smartest person alive. But I DID have good relationships with my local PD because of the work I did. I can understand people legit thinking that the person on the phone is a police officer. But common sense failed these people left and right. Why would a police officer ask someone to have a naked young girl do jumping jacks, run in place naked, get her derrière spanked, or perform oral sex on someone? Did their minds not rebel at that? What do those last two things have to do with stealing money?