When I was a much younger man, I worked as a shift manager at a McDonald’s in the UK.

One day there was a young-ish mother with 3 kids in the restaurant, probably ranging from 8 to 13. They were running riot, which was annoying but fine. It was only when they left I realised the extent of the state they’d left things. The girl working the dining area came up to me looking a bit pissed off and said I might want to get someone to come cover her as “this is going to take a while”. I went to take a look and told her instead that I’d take care of it, as I felt bad for her. The entire table was littered with food and empty boxes – that’s not a big deal, I never expected people to clear their tables. However, what the kids had also done was smear ketchup all over the seats and the wall. This wasn’t accidental, you could see their hand prints where they had tried to write things in the sauce. I found they had also chewed their fries and then spat it out and stuck it all to the underside of the table. The mother had just watched them do this and not said a word.

But there, right in the middle of the table amongst the empty sauce packets, half eaten burgers and shredded Happy Meal boxes was a small purse and 4 cinema tickets.

I grabbed a bin bag and swept the entire lot into it. Food, trash, cinema tickets, everything. I then cleared a couple more tables and added the contents of one of the food waste bins from the kitchen and took it out the back door, subtly marking the specific bag so I’d know which one it was.

About 45 minutes later, Mum and kids come storming back into the restaurant, and she’s looking a little panicky. She explains what she’s lost, to which I reply something along the lines of “I’m terribly sorry, the table was just such a mess there was no way I’d have been able to spot any personal items amongst it. I cleared this area myself, so I can show you exactly which bin bag it was in.” We were much quieter now, so I immediately sent the lobby girl on lunch, so there’s be no way she’d be guilted into helping. The Mum was seething with rage and told me I should go through it for her. I refused, very bluntly telling her it’s not my problem. Knowing the movie started soon, I reminded her she didn’t have much time to wait for someone else to do it and went back inside.

I waited a while and came back out. As she was digging through the trash in the bin area, hands covered in sauce and half chewed food, I said in the chirpiest voice I could: “I recommend in future you not let your kids purposely make such a mess.”