NYC McDonald’s hires ‘McBouncer’ to keep out violent, rowdy teens
She’s an “Arch” angel.
Wild packs of rowdy teens have allegedly created so much havoc at a Queens McDonald’s that they’ve hired a “McBouncer” to keep the kids at bay.
Claudia Zanabria, a McDonald’s crew member who survived stage 3 rectal cancer, says she was picked to police the teen terrors because she’s the “toughest” employee at the restaurant.
“This generation is really different. . . . they push me, they disrespect me,” she told The Post.
The eatery on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills has instituted a policy barring minors from eating inside their restaurant from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. — unless they’re accompanied by an adult.
Cops have been called to the restaurant 15 times so far this year for assault, disorderly conduct and other crimes, police records show.
The most serious incident appeared to happen May 21, just before 3 p.m., when a 24-year-old man claimed he was slapped by a stranger and filed a police report, the NYPD said.
Zanabria said that by the time police arrive at the restaurant, the rowdy teens have typically already fled, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Zanabria, 45, said she started working at McDonald’s at the height of the bedlam six months ago.
In one melee caught on video, two groups of teens descended on the joint from both entrances and brawled with each other — while customers grimaced in fear as fists flew.
“They were even disrespectful to the cops,” she claimed.
The restaurant is just a short walk from a school on Metropolitan Ave., which houses three different public schools that enroll 2,000 students, including Queens Metropolitan High School.
Since the ban began five months ago, as many as two dozen teens regularly crowd outside the fast food joint as Zanabria polices the locked main entrance. Another entrance is barricaded with a trash can.
She steps out and scrupulously checks the hangry teens’ cell phones for their mobile orders, then serves them their meals outside.
If a teen doesn’t order online, they are allowed to come inside and do so at the counter one at a time — under strict surveillance from Zanabria.
“They do everything to me, boys and girls, and try to get in. I don’t hit back, but I call the police,” she said.
The teens aren’t lovin’ it.
“It’s horrible, it’s so unnecessary,” one whined to The Post as he awaited a cheeseburger in the brisk 48-degree weather.
Customers, meanwhile, cheered the changes.
“I don’t want to be a victim, you don’t know if they’re going to throw something at you or punch you in the face or something,” retired clerk Joseph D’auria, 64, told The Post.
This is not the city’s only crime-ridden McDonald’s to give teens the boot.
A 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death at a McDonald’s in Sunnyside, Queens, on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2025, after a brawl broke out amongst teenagers, according to the NYPD.
A Mickey D’s on Nostrand and Flatbush avenues in Flatbush — an area known as “the junction” — began carding customers at the door in February after alleged weed-puffing teens would wreak havoc inside the fast food joint, according to manager Amber Hussain. The chaos went on for a year before the eatery banned unaccompanied minors from entering the premises.
The ID check — which is still in practice — came after a group of masked kids broke through a glass door and attacked a security guard at the restaurant.
Gabrielle Fahmy contributed to this report.