Shown is a Happy Meal at a McDonald's restaurant in San Francisco, Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. In the left foreground is a character toy included with the meal from the movie Megamind. It is a happy moment for people who see the Happy Meal as anything but. San Francisco is poised to become the first major American city to require fast-food restaurants to sell meals that meet set nutritional guidelines or not include a toy with them. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
PITTSBURGH – An employee of a McDonald's restaurant in Pittsburgh was charged Wednesday with selling heroin in Happy Meals to customers using the coded request "I'd like to order a toy."
Allegheny County authorities made the arrest after an informant told them that an employee was selling the drug at a McDonald's in the East Liberty section of the city.
Customers looking for heroin were instructed to go through the drive-thru and say, "I'd like to order a toy," said Mike Manko, spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. The customer would then drive to the window, hand over the money and get a Happy Meal box containing heroin in exchange, Manko said.
Undercover agents set up a drug buy and arrested Shania Dennis, 26, of East Pittsburgh. Dennis denied wrongdoing to reporters as she was being led away in handcuffs.
Authorities said they found 10 bags of heroin in a Happy Meal box and recovered another 50 bags from the suspect.
Another McDonald's employee was arrested this month for selling heroin out of a restaurant in nearby Murrysville.
Authorities said the heroin recovered Wednesday does not appear to be related to the fentanyl-laced heroin blamed for 22 overdose deaths in southwestern Pennsylvania.
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