Comedy star threatened with arrest after bringing folding bike into McDonald's

A stand-up comedian was threatened with arrest by police in Scotland - for insisting on bringing his folding bike into a McDonald’s.

Brian Conley said that three Grampian police officers were called to the incident, which he tweeted about, saying:

"All because I took my bicycle into McDonalds. I sincerely apologise, I didn't know I couldn't take my bike in!”
He obviously managed to talk his way out of the situation, later posting a picture of himself at home holding his bike:
 

#exhibit A !! The terrifying fold up bike that created all this mayhem.! Lol defo off to bed now! Gnite pic.twitter.com/vSV39Zolxh

— Brian Conley (@RealBrianConley) November 21, 2014

The star was in the restaurant at 1am having performed in the musical Barnum at His Majesty's theatre in Aberdeen.

McDonald's told the Daily Record that an incident took place "that resulted in security staff calling police."

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "Officers spoke to a man but no more action was taken."

Last year we reported how a cyclist was refused service at a McDonald’s drive thru.

Alistair Thompson, a councillor on Portsmouth City Council, was out riding with his four-year-old son when he decided to pop into the drive thru at the Pompey Centre for a happy meal.

He told the Portsmouth News that having placed his order at the speaker, he was told he couldn’t pay for his order at the next window.

Even when the driver of a car in front offered to pick up his meal for him, the member of staff serving wouldn’t allow it. He added that as there are cycle lanes in the area, including towards the restaurant, it seemed counter-intuitive to ban cyclists from the drive thru.

"I got to the pay window and I was told 'you can’t stay here,'" he said.

"I had been queuing just like everyone else. The worker was a jobsworth. A woman in the car in front said she would buy the Happy Meal for me but the worker said “no, you can’t do that”. It was complete nonsense.

"I was told I had to park up and pay in the branch.

A McDonald’s spokeswoman said: ‘McDonald’s supports the health and environmental benefits of cycling. However it is our policy not to serve cyclists through the drive-through lane.

‘The Highway Code, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and our own hygiene and safety department were consulted when forming this policy.’

The incident came a few weeks after a woman was fined after taking her horse into a McDonald's restaurant in Greater Manchester.

She was refused service in the drive thru in Whitefield, so led the animal into the main restaurant where it defacated on the floor.

A statement posted on the Facebook page of Greater Manchester Police's Whitefield Division read: "The staff refused to serve the women due to company policy.

"The woman then took the horse into the restaurant, who ended up doing his business on the floor. The sight and smell of this caused obvious distress and upset to customers trying to eat, as well as staff members."