Mean Fast-Food Lane Trick Inspires More Help for Homeless Man

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More help is on the way for the Detroit man splashed with water after a fast-food worker lured him to the drive-through window with a false promise of food.

Royal Oak lawyer Brian Dailey and has staff have established a both a website, www.keepwilliewarm.com, and a crowdfunding effort, gofundme.com/keepwilliewarm, to provide updates and raise money to arrange for mental health treatment and a better living situation for Willie Payne, the man humiliated in the prank.

The video of the encounter caused an international outrage, and the worker responsible for the trick was fired by the McDonald’s franchise owner, Wise Finley, who said in a statement that “this type of behavior is not tolerated in my organization” and that he expects employees at his restaurant “to treat everyone with dignity and respect.”

The Dailey Law Firm’s $1 million crowdfunding effort joins a GoFundMe campaign established by Chicago area real estate agent Christine Ciana Calabrese, who initially hoped to raise enough money to prepay an apartment for Payne, but has since teamed with Bishop Darryl Harris of Total Life Christian Ministries, a member of Detroit’s Human Rights Commission.

Learning that Payne suffers from mental illness “is definitely going to complicate matters,” Calabrese told Patch, “but I wouldn’t say it would necessarily hinder any good coming out of this.

“I was originally assuming he could live independently,” she said. “Now that he’s going to need additional resources and case management, we’re restructuring that.”

The two fundraisers may eventually be combined, the Detroit Free Press said.

Related

• Fast-Food Worker Plays Mean Trick on Homeless Man
• Fund-Raiser Helps Humiliated Homeless Man

Payne spoke to the Free Press at Dailey’s Royal Oak office with the help of a longtime neighbor, Craig Hobson. The Free Press said that due to his mental illness, Payne does not always speak coherently, but he said seeing the video in a televised news report of the incident at the restaurant was painful.

“It upset me,” Payne said. “I felt bad, but what are you going to do?

“You did wrong,” he said of the worker who tricked him, “and you reap what you sow.”

Dailey and his staff are trying to piece together Payne’s life story.

Dailey is researching reports that Payne may have spent time in prison on a manslaughter charge, but Payne’s past and current circumstances matter little, the attorney said.

“What we need to know about Willie is that he needs help, and what we need to know about Willie is that he’s not getting that,” Dailey said. “He suffered a very degrading act.”

For both Dailey and Calabrese, the humiliation of Payne in the McDonald’s drive-through lane illustrates a larger disregard for some of society’s most vulnerable people.

Dailey, whose brother suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and ultimately committed suicide, said he hopes the effort to get Payne the assistance he needs will raise awareness about mental illness in general, and illustrate how people who suffer from extreme symptoms can end up on the street or in prisons that aren’t equipped to treat them.

Calabrese said society too often looks through people who live on the margins.

“There is an assumption that these people don’t want to be functional members of society, but I have to say, it’s a pretty broad spectrum,” Calabrese said. “There may be a few people who enjoy that lifestyle, but in Mr. Payne’s case, he suffers from mental illness, and this was just a vicious act that he didn’t deserve.”

She hopes the fund-raiser she established will provide some balance.

“I think there has to be counterpart to his assault, we need to have a feel-good moment come out of it,” she said.

Said Dailey on his GoFundMe page:

“It really is time to value all people and show that we value all people. As the saying goes ’all lives matter.’ ”

Two Opportunities to Give