The Hoax Call Sexual Predator

Between 1994 and 2004, dozens of people were sexually assaulted due to over 100 hoax phone calls made to fast food restaurants throughout the U.S. The perpetrator used calling cards and payphones to anonymously call restaurants pretending to be a police officer.

The perpetrator's objective seemed to be to call small, conservative towns, ask to speak to a manager, and say he was from their local precinct. He would say one of the restaurant's employees committed a crime and give a vague description until the manager named someone.

He would then tell the franchise manager to either question the suspect for them, or that police would be sent to their location to arrest the suspect. Many complied and brought the employee to a back room. At this point the calculated sexual deviousness would begin.

The perpetrator would calmly instruct the manager to do increasingly illicit things to "help the investigation," beginning with checking the employee's pockets for stolen money, to eventually strip searching them and in some cases probing and even spanking the naked employee.

At some point the employees would realize it was a hoax and hang up, but by then, irreversible damage had already been done. Many victims were too ashamed to go to police, and many police were unwilling to try and solve the crime due to it's bizarre and anonymous nature.

Two detectives painstakingly spent four months working with AT&T and Walmart to trace the calling cards. They led to camera footage of a Florida man named David Stewart buying the cards used in one case. A police search revealed he had more cards and was a corrections officer.

The detectives even went so far as to show phone records of numerous of these criminal calls taking place only during hours when Stewart was not at work and could have made them. Additionally all calls were made from locations he frequented.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, ultimately jurors found it all to be circumstantial, and found Stewart "not guilty". However, immediately after his arrest, the calls stopped and there have been no reports of similar events happening since.

Some of the victims sued their places of employment and were quietly awarded settlements. Despite many franchises being aware of these events, they failed to alert their restaurants and staff. McDonalds alone settled 6 such cases before being sued for $200 million.

Louise Ogborn from Mount Washington, Kentucky won $6 million in punitive damages against McDonald's after she was victimized by the caller and her manager. The jury found the corporation had ample evidence of these crimes in advance, but failed to protect this 18 year old girl.