The background:

The manager of a McDonalds receives a call from a man who claims to be a policeman investigating a criminal complaint against an employee. She calls the teenager into the office, initiates a search, then gets her to strip completely, all on the behest of the man on the phone -- who is not, of course, a cop, and who has conned dozens of fast food outlets. At least 13 of the dozens of people called initiated similar strip searches, and 7 have been convicted.

From the ABC PrimeTime summary:

"Clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere says the caller's actions were likely a way to feed a God-like complex by manipulating his victims emotionally, physically and sexually. He calls it "virtual voyeurism."

Gardere goes on to say that it was no accident that caller was targeting fast food restaurants.

"Everything is by the book," he explained. "This is how you serve it. This is exactly how you do it. You follow the book -- you're OK. I believe he picked fast food restaurants because he knew, once you got them away from that book, once it was something outside the manual or the procedures, they would be lost."

Detailed Louisville Courier-Journal story, with references to the infamous Milgram study and Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment.

Wikipedia

The heated MetaFilter thread from 2005.

Milgram on VideoSift

The Stanford Prison Experiment on VideoSift

The depths to which those who are given knowlege and power will sink always amazes me, but not really. Guess I don't need to say anything about what would happen, should I witness anything like this personally, and had the power to intercede..swift and unmercifully for starters.

well ok, probably would involve some force-feeding of McRibs to the greasy sonofabitch, oh and in full view of the same camera...

I could just smell the lawsuit before clicking on this video.

There were 3 adults in that room and they all succumbed to this.

hmmm dw1117 brings up an interesting point, worm turning, at its U.S. best...."Lawsuit's for everyone, Supersize me!"

Wait this was on the Sift previously no?

yes, i'm looking for it now!

I searched under mcdonalds, teen, hoax, authority, milgram, compliance and several other terms I can't remember and I didn't find a match. But if it turns out to be a dupe, it's a dupe.

I was absolutely disgusted and outraged when I heard about this in November 2005, and even more so with some people's unsympathetic reactions to the girl's ordeal, and I was all over that linked MeFi thread saying so. I was reminded of this case when ABC ran a show last night where they (badly) recreated the Milgram experiment and showed a small excerpt from this report. So I looked for the report ... and here we are.

In my judgment, it's not out of line for the Sift. I wouldn't have just posted surveillance video alone: that would be horrifically exploitive and creepy. It was the full report, and the victim's own words on camera, that balanced (I thought) the whole story. But I understand that not everyone will see it the same way and I expected some downvotes.

ahhhhhhhhhh yes ... that's where we saw it!!! the milgram experiment!!!

this is technically not a dupe, as this video is an interview with those involved in the mcdonald's case.

it's really disgusting that it took over 3 hours and a third person to finally stand up for another person's rights as a human being.

Oh, I saw that link, but the tags and title didn't suggest a match with this specific incident at all.

And the Milgram Experiment looks to be one of those disappearing Google videos, too, so this video seems to be the only one on the Sift touching on this case at all now.

Expired in Queue (4 day limit)