Mamma mia! An Indonesian man has been arrested for threatening to blow up a McDonald’s restaurant, because he thought Italians were responsible for the abominations that are the American fast food franchise and SARS-CoV-2.
On Monday, a 35-year-old man, identified by his initials MH, walked into a McDonald’s store in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar. Instead of ordering, he threatened employees that he would blow up the store.
“He terrorized [the store] and said that the coronavirus was created by Italians and the restaurant is Italian so he wanted to blow it up,” South Sulawesi Police spokesman Ibrahim Tompo said yesterday.
Thankfully, MH did not follow through on his threat as he immediately left the store and drove away on his motorbike.
He was arrested at a mosque on Tuesday after police identified him using the store’s CCTV footage. There was no evidence that MH was in possession of explosives.
To the police, MH confessed that his prejudice was not limited to Italians.
“We believe that his motive was that he hated foreign products,” Ibrahim said.
It’s not clear where he got the idea that Italians were responsible for the coronavirus and McDonald’s.
MH has not been charged for his actions as police found out that he had previously been declared medically insane. As of yesterday, he was reportedly still in police custody, but he may be transferred to a mental institution soon.
