Obedience - Fast Food Strip Search

(Mature Content: contains a desctiption of sexual abuse). In response to voice on the phone claiming to be a police officer, a McDonald manager strip searches an 18 year old employee. The same man has convinced over 60 other managers across the country to perform similar acts.

- You don't know what you would do

unless you're in that situation.

That's not the conclusion
of Stanley Milgram

or Phil Zimbardo based on our research,

that's a conclusion

from an assistant manager
in McDonald's in Kentucky,

Donna Summers, who was trapped
in what has come to be known

as an authority hoax.

A stranger calls up, pretending
to be a police officer

saying that one of the
employees has stolen something,

has contraband and that what she has to do

is bring the woman to the
security room in the back,

strip her naked and search
for this contraband,

it sounds like it's drugs or something.

And then at that point,

the guy on the phone, who she
believes is a police officer

begins to tell her to do more
and more outrageous things.

Finally he asks her to bring in a male

to take care of the situation

'cause she's gotta go back to work,

and this authority hoax guy

this guy pretending to be a police chief,

tells this man to do something

which is horrendous.

We could say this is
what's wrong with this guy,

what's wrong with this woman,

if it didn't happen in over 60 other

fast food establishments
throughout the country.

So here is the power of authority

to get good people to do bad things.

Not an experiment but in everyday life

throughout the United States.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] A series of strange events

recently confirmed Milgram's
theories about obedience.

Targeting fast food
restaurants across the country,

the con man telephoned restaurant managers

and convinced them to strip search

and sometimes sexually
abuse their employees.

The mystery is not in the
con man, but in the victims,

why would they obey?

- This person was so convincing

that people saw him as
a legitimate authority.

I think we have probably the closest thing

that we have to a Milgram experiment today

in these strip searches.

- [Narrator] The most
famous of these incidents

took place at a McDonald's in
Mount Washington, Kentucky.

- There was a videotape
security camera had found,

we didn't hear what the instructions were

but due to the actions
that had taken place,

what the victim was doing in the video

and stuff, it was pretty evident

what each instruction was.

- [Narrator] An anonymous caller

pretending to be a police officer

told the assistant manager

that an employee had stolen some money.

- He said "I'm Officer Scott,"

and he said "I'm with
the police department

"I'm investigating a complaint."

It went directly from a
theft into a drug thing.

So I was asked to search her clothing.

You know he would tell me,
take her shoes, click them,

take her shirt, shake it out.

I know how it seems to people,

but you weren't on the phone with him.

The man has convinced
70 to 100 other places

the very same thing.

He's very good at what he does, very good.

(thunder rolling)

He sounded like a police officer,

and I'm thinking okay, I'm
doing what I'm supposed to do.

- He was getting some kind of satisfaction

about being an authority figure

and telling people what to do

and then realizing by
the phone conversation

that they were actually
doing what he said.

- He's telling me

that I needed to get
someone to sit with her

while he goes and gets somebody to come in

to pick her up.

- The caller then asked the manager

if she was married or had a boyfriend,

she said she had a fiance,

then the caller asked if
she could have her fiance

come to the restaurant

and assist her with the
strip search of the victim.

- He says, "Well, why
don't you have him come up

"and sit there, I mean you can trust him."

So I called Wes, my fiance,

we were gonna get married,

and asked him if he would come up.

- The manager goes about

doing her duties of running the restaurant

and leaves the fiance there in the office

and then the caller
starts giving instructions

over the phone of things

that he wants the victim to do

and what he wants the
fiance to tell her to do.

Have her remove her apron

and instructed to do jumping
jacks and jog in place

and several more things.

She was still in high school,

the kind of person she was,

she was actually graduating
the top 10 in her class

and she was scared of being
in trouble with the police

so she sort of just went along

and did whatever the fiance told her to do

because she didn't want to
be in trouble for anything.

- During all this time, I'm working.

I'm running the floor, I'm getting change,

and then when I would walk into the office

to get the change or
whatever I had to get,

Wes would be sitting
where he was when I left

and she was sitting where she was,

and no one said anything.

- [Narrator] After over
two and a half hours,

Summers' fiance Walter Nicks,

did something that was unthinkable.

Complying with the
instructions of the caller,

he ordered the employee
to perform a sexual act.

- And there was no way
that I could take away

from what happened to her.

A lot of people you know look at you

and go, "Well you're a nut,
you should be strung up."

I've had it even said to me,

God it's really hard
because you weren't there.

- The Milgram study showed us

that most people would do that.

If you structure the environment

such that you provide all the authority

and the commands, just
anybody might do this.

- But I do think this sounds worse.

- You think this is worse
than what Milgram did?

- With the Milgram there was
somebody sitting right there

and instructing them if they
hesitated they could turn

and then somebody could encourage them

and they could sort of
maybe psychologically

leave that responsibility
on that other person.

But in this case, the police
officer's on the phone,

he's not standing there.

- And that is a very good point.

- You know you look back on it,

you say I wouldn't have done it,

but unless you're put in that situation,

at that time, how do you
know what you would do?

You don't, you don't.

- [Narrator] Over 60 other people

did exactly as Donna Summers did.

Why is it so easy for us to obey orders,

even when we know they are wrong?

Why are we willing to
inflict pain on others,

if someone else takes responsibility?

- There's nothing more difficult

for people to violate a social structure,

which all participants
have initially accepted.

It reminds me of a situation

that once occurred in South America,

I was in an airplane,

the pilot came into the
plane, he was drunk,

he was reeling toward the cockpit.

Passengers looked at each other,

but no one got up, no
one said to the pilot,

"You're drunk, we can't
fly on this plane."

There is a set of pressures

that keep you in the role
you've initially accepted.