August 12, 2001

Snakes and Whoppers?

August 12, 2001

Here's a bit of Netlore, probably struck up by the recent death of a child in a Burger King ball-pit (from the mesh*, not any of the millions of snakes that are apparently in ball-pits across the country).

Subject: You should know this!! This is a true story... About a week or so ago, a mother took her eager 3 year old son to Burger King for lunch. After they ate their lunch the mother said that the son could go and play on the playground for awhile since he ate all his lunch. She watched as the boy played in the tunnels, slide and in the ball-pit. The boy played for about 10 minutes when he started to whimper slightly. The mother asks the boy what had happened and he mearly (sic) replied, "Hurt mommy." The mother assumed that the little boy had banged his elbow or something while playing. They left to return home. A half and hour after they were home, the mother noticed some big red welts on the little boys arms and legs. Not being able to figure out what they were, the mother started to look at them closer. Could be red ant bites...she did not know. An hour later, the little boy died. Come to find out, when returning to Burger King to see if there were red ants in the play area, in case the little boy had an allergic reaction. Burger King employees and herself discovered that there was a family of baby rattlesnakes living underneath the balls in the ball-pit area. She has since found out that this happens more frequently than not (this is my favourite line).

The snakes will crawl into the ball pit because it is dark and warm in there. She knows for a fact that another death has occurred because of this in South Carolina. Please use caution when letting any children play in an outside play area of a fast food restaurant, this could happen anywhere. Burger Kings are now building their play area's inside the buildings for a safer environment.

* Actually, so the story goes, the child's mother brought the kid to Burger King for the day while she worked, and the kid, under no parental supervision, was accidentally strangled in the ball-pit mesh.

Burger King recalls enough "toys of doom" without the need for urban legends!