One night, working the night shift at Kilburn McDonald’s, Preetham Seepaul looked up to see a teenage girl quickly walking towards the counter.
Something about the way she looked told him she was in danger. Whispering under her breath, she said: “Please help me.”
Looking out towards the front of the store, Preetham noticed a man approaching her from behind.
He immediately ushered the girl behind the counter and into the branch office, where she told him she was being followed.
The man who had been behind her, presumably aware that she was now safe and that police might be called, slipped away.
This story might be 25 years old, but Preetham, now an area manager for a McDonald’s franchise in Islington and Hackney, says the streets of London have not got any safer.
He points to the uptick in mobile phone snatchers, and a lack of police at a time when the capital’s population continues to grow.
That is why, he says, he is eager to spread the word that McDonald’s will always have an open door whenever young people feel in danger.
Despite running for a number of years, the ‘Safe Haven’ policy at McDonald’s branches in Highbury, Holloway, City Road, Angel and Hackney, is still little known.
Speaking to older pupils at The Bridge School in Carleton Road, Holloway, on Friday (June 21), Preetham said staff at these branches will always be “happy to help” if they feel under threat.
Pupils at the Bridge School and teacher Angela Grant (left), CSEF's Michael Fitzgerald (second left), Preetham Seepaul (third left), McDonald's community engagement officer Christina Triantafillou (middle front) and teacher Joanna Kurylowicz (right) (Image: Newsquest)
As one teacher at the school, said: “There’s more to McDonald’s than just hamburgers and chips.”
Amir Atefi, the McDonald's franchise owner, said: “Whenever you go to a McDonald’s you will see a sign that says Safe Haven.
“It’s our duty to be a very good neighbour in the community. So, if someone is following you, or you’re having any issues with violence, you can pop into any of our restaurants, speak to the manager and they will be happy to help you.”
McDonald’s had organised the talk at the special school for children with severe learning difficulties in partnership with the Children’s Safety Education Foundation (CSEF).
Michael Fitzgerald, from CSEF, said: “McDonald’s is a place you can go to if you’re ever in trouble, and you’ll feel safe.”
“At night, what’s closer to you – a police officer on the street or a McDonald’s?
“We’d all like to think that these things won’t happen, but we don’t live in that kind of world.”
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