Los Angeles Resident Pulls Into KFC Drive-Thru. Then They Catch The Worker Doing Something Sneaky: ‘I’ve Never Seen Them Do This’

Every job comes with its own ways to cheat the system.

Back when the pandemic required everyone to be at home—and bosses monitored employees to make sure they were actually at their computers—everyone suddenly became familiar with “mouse jigglers.” These made them appear online, even when they were really off getting a coffee.

Now, hacking your job can mean everything from outsourcing parts of it to other people, using AI to automate certain tasks, or employing clever tricks to get your metrics up.

A user on TikTok recently captured an employee appearing to engage in one of those metric-boosting tricks at a local KFC drive-thru. But how does it work?

What Did This Employee Put Out Of Their Window?

In a video with over 8 million views, TikToker @moments.r.precious shows a car driving away from a drive-thru at a KFC in Compton, California.

After a moment, an employee leans their head out of the window. They then stick a long metal rod toward the ground. The employee then waves the rod around for a few seconds before finally pulling it back into the window.

“I’ve never seen them do this before,” the TikToker wrote in the video’s overlay text. “I thought it was just a coin scooper for coins that fall off.”

What’s Going On Here?

In a comment, a user explained his theory as to what’s happening in this video.

“As someone who works in fast food, here’s the explanation: there is a sensor underneath the concrete which senses cars when they approach and stop at the windows,” the user wrote. “We have a short timer (ranging from 3-5 minutes) to get your food out. If our times are bad (orders taking longer than designated time set) we get in trouble and can get privileges taken away.”

“THAT device helps us because we trigger the sensor and trick the system into thinking the car drove off so our times will be normal,” the user continued.

Many fast food restaurants indeed employ sensors to detect when a car is present. There are a few benefits to this. First, it can inform employees that a customer has arrived if they are busy taking care of other tasks. Second, the restaurant can collect data about how long a customer waits in order to, theoretically, improve wait times for everyone.

However, some workers say they face scrutiny if they do not meet certain efficiency standards. This is even if they are working as fast as they can. This system may incentivize them to cheat.

Other Ways To Hack The Sensor

Several discussions on Reddit have affirmed the idea that messing with these sensors is fairly common. According to many commenters, it’s pretty common practice to “cheat” the system. They do so by using metal items like the one shown in the video.

If they don’t have a metal item, they find other ways to cheat the system, as some commenters explained.

“When I worked at a Taco Bell,the timer wasn’t actually correlated with the orders, which was kind of stupid,” recalled a commenter. “There were several instances where one of us workers (teenagers) would just circle around the building in the drive through waiting ten seconds at each window and the order speaker for 45 minutes or so to get the time down.”

Others claimed that employees solved this issue by asking customers to pull ahead when no one is behind them.

Next time you see a fast food worker sticking something out of the window, it’s not because they dropped their keys. It’s probably because they need to get their numbers up. You can help out by getting your order and leaving as fast as you can (not that you’d want to hang around in the drive-thru, anyway).

BroBible reached out to KFC via email and @moments.r.precious via TikTok direct message and comment.