Lavonia McDonald’s Back Open After Customer Videos Mouse Inside Store

The Lavonia McDonald’s on Highway 17 is back open for business after a customer videoed a mouse inside the store.

It happened Sunday.

The video, posted on Facebook by a former employee, shows a mouse sitting on top of a drink cup at the beverage dispensers by the drive-thru window.  The mouse then darted behind the dispensers and disappeared.

That video went viral with over a 165,000 views and over 4,000 shares as of Tuesday afternoon.

Terry Shugart owns the Lavonia McDonald’s along with other McDonald’s stores in Hartwell, Franklin Springs, and Elberton, as well as three more stores in South Carolina.

Shugart declined WNEG’s request for an audio interview, but in a prepared statement released Tuesday said,

“Employee and customer safety and health is our top priority. Once we were made aware of this incident on Sunday, we took immediate action and chose to temporarily close our restaurant so we could investigate,” Shugart said. “We quickly contacted the local health inspector to request a follow up visit to our restaurant, as well as a pest control company as a precaution. Both agencies closely re-inspected our restaurant Monday, provided clean reports, and we reopened that same day. We strive to handle every situation involving our restaurants swiftly and with transparency.”

Franklin County Health Department Environmental Director Louis Korff tells WNEG News he did a thorough inspection of the store Monday.

“We were able to determine how the mouse got in. There was a hole in the wall behind the equipment where no one could see it and that’s exactly where the mouse was getting in, right there by the drive-thru,” Korff explained. “I went through and gave (Shugart) some other pointers. It’s not a good thing, but in the winter when it’s cold mice will, if they can find a way in, get in.”

Korff said it is very common for vermin to get into restaurants and other businesses where food is sold during the winter months.

He said no other mice or vermin were found at the Lavonia McDonald’s and steps were taken by the pest control company to make sure they do not get in again.

Korff also commended Shugart for taking immediate action and closing the store until the issue was taken care of and the Health Department signed off on its re-opening.

“That’s not something I see very often,” Korff said. “He immediately got on it and closed. He didn’t have to do that, but he wanted the public to know he took the issue seriously.”