Mi chiedevo coma mai fosse tornata a circolare una curiosa storia legata a Burger King pubblicata nel 2014 da Leggo. L’articolo si intitolava ““Voglio la torta”, urla il bimbo in fila. E un altro cliente compra tutte le 23 fette per fargli dispetto“:

NEW YORK – I bambini viziati e capricciosi meritano una lezione: questo deve aver pensato l’uomo che in un Burger King americano ha comprato tutte le fette di torta disponibili solo per far dispetto a un piccolo cliente.

E’ lo stesso protagonista a raccontarlo sulla piattaforma Reddit: entrambi erano in fila in uno dei ristoranti della nota catena di fast food, all’improvviso il bambino urla di volere un pezzo di quella “dannata torta” e l’utente, infastidito ed esasperato, per zittire il bambino ha comprato tutte le fette di torta disponibili: 23 porzioni di torta di mele.

Il post in cui racconta l’accaduto è intitolato: “Sono una brutta persona per questo?”.

IL POST “Ordino tutte le fette di torta in aggiunta ai miei hamburger, prendo il mio ordine e mi avvio verso l’uscita. Pochi istanti dopo sento la donna urlare ‘Che significa che non ci sono più torte perché le hanno comprate tutte?!’. Mi giro e vedo la cassiera che mi indica e la donna che mi lancia occhiatacce. Tiro fuori una torta e inizio a mangiare lentamente mentre la fisso, lei fa per correre verso di me ma non può raggiungermi perché in mezzo ci sono delle corsie con il cibo. Mi volto e me inizio a camminare lentamente”.

Effettivamente qualcuno aveva citato l’articolo riportandone solo uno screenshot, come ha fatto la pagina Facebook “Adottare soluzioni punk per sopravvivere” il 12 agosto 2017:

Su Reddit esiste ancora la discussione aperta da Thr111 il 4 agosto 2014, intitolata proprio “Am I a bad person for this?“. Aprendo il link non troverete il suo intervento originale siccome lo stesso utente si cancellò successivamente da Reddit, tuttavia la discussione è ancora presente e un utente ne ha riportato il testo:

So a while ago I had decided to treat myself and go to Burger King. I hadn’t had the greatest of days and I had a headache coming on. It was a very long line and I was at the end of it waiting patiently. When behind me comes this woman yapping on her cellphone with a little monster of a child. This kid was out of control, screaming, punching his mother throwing around a gameboy whenever something didn’t go right in the game. The mother didn’t seem to pay any attention to him and his continued yelling of ‘I want a Fucking PIE’. After about 5 minutes of the line with these people behind me, I had gone from a headache to a full on migraine, but nothing was going to stop me from getting those burgers. I calmly turn and ask her nicely if she can please calm or quiet her child down. Immediately she gets up in my face telling me I can’t tell her nothing about raising her child and to mind my own business. I nod and turn around, shes still yelling at the back of my head when the child cries out again how he wants a pie, the mother consoles him, calling him sweety and ensuring they’ll get pies for lunch because she loves him so much. Things immediately go back to the they were and I wait another 5 minutes before getting to the front of the line. It turns out it was so slow because they had 1 trainee on cash during the lunch hour rush. All I can think of is how the people behind me ruined my splurge and gave me this headache. I then decide to ruin their day. I order every pie they have left in addition to my burgers. Turned out to be 23 pies in total, I take my order and walk towards the exit. Moments later I hear the woman yelling, what do you mean you don’t have any pies left, who bought them all? I turn around and see the cashier pointing me out with the woman shooting me a death glare. I stand there and pull out a pie and slowly start eating eat as I stare back at her. She starts running towards me but can’t get to me because of other lineups in the food court. I turn and slowly walk away.

Qualcuno aveva messo in dubbio la storia di Thr111, definendolo un bugiardo, ricordando un’altra “simile” riportata su Notalwaysright.com prima della pubblicazione su Reddit:

(A coworker is offering macaroons at work. He had never had them before but had bought a whole lot of them, and we get to hear the story of why he had bought them.)

Coworker: “There’s a cake shop near my house. I go there all the time, and there’s a regular customer I see there who is really mean. That day she said she was going to buy some macaroons and not share any with her grandkids. I was ahead of her in line, so when it was my turn, I said ‘I’d like to buy all your macaroons!.’”

L’otto agosto 2014 un altro utente, Tossingx1, pubblicò una “lettera” di Thr111 dove spiegava il perché della sua cancellazione da Reddit e mettendo i puntini sulle “i” sul racconto. L’attenzione mediatica che aveva attirato a se e le reazioni scomposte gli erano risultate eccessive, portandolo a chiedere scusa alla donna e al bambino della storia.

Ecco la discussione su Reddit dal titolo “Why Thr111 deleted his account“:

Hello this is Thr111, I am posting on a throw away account. The reason I deleted my previous account is simple, you people.
The hate mail, the angry messages, the accusations of being a liar for the sake of karma and attention. Then the media picked it up and the whole thing exploded. I never wanted to be called a hero, I never sought after internet fame, but somehow an average Canadian guy who bought a bunch of pies became an American news topic.
Do you realize how stupid it is for me to have made the news! People have been doing this kind of thing for years, other redditors told me their stories, all of which are to spite angry children.
Why am I on the radio, why am I on news articles, why are people messaging me for TV and radio appearances?!?! For proof that you always want, here are some of those invites with the emails, phone numbers blotted out.
Hi there, I wrote about your story: http://eater.com/archives/2014/08/06/man-buys-23-burger-king-apple-pies-to-spite-a-small-child.php Would it be possible to talk further about the situation? Thanks, ————–
Hey! I work at the TV show and website TMZ in Los Angeles. I love the story of you buying all the pies, and would LOVE to do a story on you! Could you call me? ———— or email me ———— Thanks, Anthony TMZ
or even better, in Houston! I’m a redditor and producer at the CBS station here in Houston. What a fantastic story! Do you still have the receipt showing the purchase? You can write to me directly at ———— Thanks! MikeO
I love the PIE story and think it resonates with so many people(like myself) sick of stuff like this. Would you be interested in being on my radio show here in San Diego for a couple minutes? You could stay anonymous if you wanted. I do a Morning radio show and would love to have you on the phone for 2-5 minutes? My name is Rick Moorten. You can also email me at ———– Thank you!!
Hello, We are a radio station morning show out of Syracuse NY and we are talking about your story on the air! We were wondering if you had a number we could contact you at to discuss this hilarious story! ————— or email us at —————
Hey, I have a radio show in Dallas/Ft Worth…would you be interested in coming on our show to talk about the Burger King incident? And I have to commend you on your creativity! Let me know if your interested. Rebekah
I produce a national radio show heard in about 27 cities. Would you be interested in jumping on the phone and doing a phone call with us tomorrow? Thanks!
All of these invites for appearances I didn’t want to do, and only offered up additional information on it. You people took my simple moral question on right and wrong and made it into this huge thing, something I never envisioned or wanted to happen. I didn’t want this to happen, I wanted it to stop and I knew that even if i deleted the post people would still msg me on the subject and I would forever be reddit’s “pie man”. The only way to stop this was to kill my account, and this post, is the last thing I will ever write on reddit.
Im sorry everyone, I apologize to woman and her little boy, I’m sorry I don’t want to contribute anything more to media, Im sorry people where banned and upset about my post, Im sorry I couldn’t provide proof, Im sorry I deleted my account and caused ‘panic’ on reddit.
But mostly, I’m sorry I ever posted that damn question in the first place.

Dal 2014 ad oggi non si ha traccia di qualche sviluppo riguardo a questa storia, una testimonianza o quant’altro. Certo è che i dipendenti del Burger King non andrebbero a dire in giro “è accaduto nella nostra sede” perché quest’ultima verrebbe presa di mira da coloro che non hanno apprezzato il racconto, dall’altra parte quale quale genitore (madre o padre) andrebbe in giro a dire “era mio figlio quello che faceva i vergognosi capricci“.