Drive-Thru Window Workers Share the Craziest Things They've Seen in People's Cars

Maria Yagoda
Updated
"A guy holding a pillow with Nicolas Cage's face on it."

Working at fast-food restaurants, or any public-facing hospitality job, is one of the most dynamic, demanding lines of work, as you must deal with a constant influx of requests and complaints from strangers, while standing on your feet all day, no less. The experience of working in a drive-thru is even more unique, as you're given intimate glimpses into people's lives and the things they carry (in their cars.) Somtimes, it gets weird.

A new AskReddit thread asked drive-thru employees who work the windows about the craziest things they've seen in people's cars, and it turns out a lot of people drive around with obscure animals. Below, the most surprising answers.

1. "A girl came through one time with her cat in the car. Like a typical cat in a car, it freaked out when she stopped at the window. When it tried to climb out, she rushed to put up the window and the cat's head got stuck. For a split second I thought she was gonna decapitate it. Luckily she stopped, lowered the window, and grabbed the cat. It was so close. I can still picture the look of horror on that cat's face."

2. "A rare Australian bird in a Chicago drive-thru. Apparently, she worked at a zoo, and there are only a couple of the birds left in the world."

3. "A guy holding a pillow with Nicolas Cage's face on it."

4. "A big bag of weed in the passenger's seat. Like a sandwich bag stuffed to capacity."

5. "His wife is full on naked in the other side of the car."

6. "A cow in the front seat."

7. "I work at a fried chicken place woth a drive thru, and I am constantly amazed at the number of people who have other bags of food that come through. Like folks who have Mcdonald's, a pizza, and then order from me."

8. "Parrot on shoulder and no pants on."

9. "Stuffed possum in the passenger seat."

10. "At least 30 different lamps. So many lamps."

11. "An actual living huge ass goose in the passenger seat."

12. "Someone handed me a gnome and asked for a picture. I obliged."

13. "A mannequin in the front seat, and two blow up dolls in the back seat."

14. "He ordered ten bags of ice from us. And he had what looked like 30 or 40 more bags of ice in his van."

All Reddit posts have been edited for length and clarity.