The normal patrol for Union City police officer Wendell Adams took an unexpected turn in the early morning hours Aug. 7 when he was sickened after eating a couple of bites of a Big N’ Tasty hamburger from the McDonald’s restaurant on Ga. Highway 138. The unusual incident resulted in a misdemeanor charge against 20 year-old McDonald’s employee Kendra Bull, who said she accidentally over-salted the burger.

Union City police spokesman Sgt. George Louth said Adams took only a couple of bites of the burger and returned to the drive-thru window to alert the manager about the extremely salty hamburger. Adams then began gagging and vomiting and soon called another on-duty officer, Lt. Eugene Tate. Once at the scene, Tate checked Adams and called for paramedics and a back-up officer to complete an incident report, Louth said. At one point while checking Adams, paramedics said his blood pressure registered at 180/120. Adams has no history of high blood pressure, Louth said. Adams was treated and released from Southern Regional Medical Center.

Bull claimed the burger was accidentally over-seasoned but was charged with reckless conduct, Louth said. He said that, given the amount of seasoning on the product, there were no reasonable steps taken to prevent the consumer from experiencing a potential physical problem. The product was served without regard for the health and well being of the consumer, he added.

McDonald’s spokesperson Martha Hunt said the company could only say at this point that the matter is under investigation internally and that McDonald’s is gathering facts to determine what happened.

Louth noted that after Tate arrived at the restaurant and was communicating with paramedics, he noticed a McDonald’s employee standing outside the restaurant laughing. The woman was later identified as Kendra Bull, Louth said.

Louth said that, essentially, the incident was either accidental or intentional. Current charges against Bull reflect the former assertion, Louth said, adding that other potential charges would be felonies if it is determined that the incident was not accidental. Four possibilities existed from which charges could have been made. The incident could have been an accidental case of excessive over-seasoning, over-seasoning with disregard for the consumer, purposefully tainting a food product or purposeful tainting directed at a police officer, Louth said.

“Ms. Bull was charged with the least of the four possible charges,” Louth said. “This was not a matter of a dissatisfied customer. This is a matter of harming a consumer, no matter who the consumer is. And this consumer happened to be a healthy individual.”

Louth said the investigation into the circumstances of the incident, including Bull’s behavior, the potential involvement of other McDonald’s staff and the testing of the salt-glazed burger, is ongoing. Louth said McDonald’s is cooperating with the investigation.