Florida Man Accused Of Dousing McDonald's Manager With Hot Coffee Over 1-Cent Dispute

A Florida man has been charged with felony battery weeks after he was seen dousing a McDonald’s employee with hot coffee at a drive-thru window.

Elizar Ravelo, 64, was arrested Monday in Miami Springs, Florida. According to local law enforcement, he was ordered to stay away from the alleged victim, Stephanie Restuccia, as well as the McDonald’s where the alleged altercation took place.

Surveillance footage dated Aug. 25 and shared on the Miami Springs Police Department’s social media pages appears to show Ravelo at the drive-thru window of a McDonald’s where he proceeds to have an argument with Restuccia, who is the restaurant’s manager.

According to reports, Restuccia approached the window after overhearing Ravelo, who has been described as a frequent customer, complaining to another employee that he’d been overcharged on his breakfast order.

Watch a CBS News Miami report on the incident below.

As Restuccia reaches out to hand Ravelo his coffee, he aggressively slaps the cup back at her before driving off. Police said Restuccia was left with minor burns on her right arm and chest following the incident.

Restuccia, who has worked as a manager at the McDonald’s for four years, described the experience as “humiliating.”

“You don’t expect people to do this to you,” she told CBS News Miami. “I overheard the guy say: ‘Oh, you are robbing me.’ He started to yell. He got offensive, he started calling me names. As soon as I pull out the coffee, he just smashed it and it went all over me. He left [at] like 100 miles an hour.”

As to the bill Ravelo was allegedly disputing, McDonald’s shift manager Nayib Garcia told Florida-based NBC affiliate Local 10: “What the rest of the crew told me, it was over a penny.”

According to police records, Ravelo was released on $5,000 bond Tuesday. He is set to be arraigned on Nov. 1.