McDonalds is facing a lawsuit of $3 million from a couple who got racy pictures of the wife posted online , along with her name, address and telephone number, after the husband left a phone containing the pictures in McDonalds employees’ care.

Phillip Sherman forgot his cell phone at a McDonalds in Fayetteville, Arkansas in July, and asked the manager there to hold it for him until he could retrieve it.

Before they could do so however, the Shermans started getting more and more obscene and harassing text messages phone calls.

The phone contained the photos which had been sent by his wife, and all of these had been posted online along with personal information about the Shermans. The threats got so bad that the couple was eventually forced to move from their home to escape the stalkers.

The Shermans decided then to sue McDonalds, Mathews Management Company – the owner of the Fayetteville franchise, and the restaurant manager Aaron Brummley. The couple are asking for $3 million in damages for suffering embarrassment and the cost of moving.

The allegations are very serious, since they mean that a McDonalds’ employee accessed the private information contained in the cell phone. If the manager, Mr. Brummley, is not the one who did so, then it means that he is guilty of gross lack of professionalism as he did not put the cell phone safely away until Sherman could retrieve it, and allowed what is most likely a younger employee who decided to play a joke.

The massive invasion of the Shermans’ privacy shows that McDonalds needs to review their policy on lost items and enforce it strictly on their employees. Then again, leaving an unlocked phone containing ‘compromising’ pictures in a public place is at the very least careless.