MT. CARMEL—Picking up some food at McDonald’s doesn’t mean “pick up a chick,” too.
But apparently it did for a guy in Mt. Carmel the other day. Unfortunately for the girl, we’re not talking a “pick-up line”….we’re talking in physically picking up. As in, whisking away, never to be seen or heard from again.
It wasn't quite this pleasant....
According to friends and family of Samantha Potter, a 17-year-old McDonald’s employee in Mt. C, she was at the drive-through window working when a man (whose name we’re working on; we don’t have the exact spelling yet and we’re not going to put what we have phonetically up here in case it’s wrong), whom she knew from serving him for weeks prior, tried to grab her—and succeeded. That’s right; dude grabbed hold of her when she leaned out the window to give him change, and he yanked on her, pulling her OUT THE DRIVE-THRU WINDOW AND PARTIALLY INTO HIS TRUCK.
Samantha, who is not a petite little girl but instead is tall and quite strong (we’ve been told by at least one of her friends that she does farm work in the summer for a part-time income), was able to gather her wits about her after the initial shock and pull herself back into the drive through window.
However, nobody on duty did anything. And I mean, they did NOTHING. Acted like this was a common, everyday occurrence. Even told dude to pull up, and someone would bring his order out to him, as it was taking a moment to get ready. And then the two managers on duty wouldn’t allow Samantha to call the police. Or her mom. Which was what she was REALLY upset about.
As it turned out, this guy, who was in the area working for Zachary in Mt. Carmel, which works contract work on the former PSI power plant across the river (now Duke Energy), was finally stopped by cops on his way out of town, headed back to his home in Oklahoma. He was all packed up with every one of his belongings in there; apparently, he wanted Samantha to be one of his belongings to take back to Oklahoma. He had fallen for her during his time working at PSI, and when she had served him at the drive through, he would touch her hand, which annoyed her but being 17, she didn’t know for sure what to do about it. At 17, the creep-o-meter isn’t the most developed instinct; most kids just brush things like that off.
Reportedly, dud was arrested, but we’re not finding any record of it right now. We don’t even know where he was stopped; he might’ve already been over in Indiana by the time someone got to him. Nevertheless, he was able to post bond (because these transient types, including illegals, allegedly working for Zachary make an obscene amount of money, going into toxic and hazardous areas of PSI for clean up), and he was out and one his way….although where, remains unknown right now.
What we do know is that Samantha’s back at the window. And maybe dude will come right back, who knows.
What’s wrong with this picture? McDonald’s management? Local police? Local authorities? (If it’s Cassandra Goldman, we know what’s WRONG…stuff like this, she can’t be bothered with. She’s too busy busting the lowlifes of Wabash County while the high-and-mighties get away with everything BUT murder) and under-charging punks like Jeremy Birkla.
We don’t know the solution. Maybe you do. But we thought we might tell you what went on; we know members of Samantha’s family, and they’re all decent people; this was a terrible thing to have happen to them. We’re hoping we can catch up with this punk guy before the next print version and do an update….but we just don’t know. Hopefully, the punk won’t try to “pick up” anybody else—out of Burger King, or Taco Tierra, or some other locale in Mt. C—between now and then.