In a striking departure from the norm, a McDonald’s in the heart of America has been dubbed one of the country’s most intimidating dining spots. Due to safety concerns, this fast-food location only serves patrons via a specially constructed hatch, barring them from accessing the dining area.

Located at the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Pine Street in Seattle’s bustling downtown, this McDonald’s has shuttered its doors to diners after becoming a backdrop for chilling incidents, including violent crimes and chaotic disturbances.

Instead of the usual entry, customers must now place their orders through a hatch that has replaced what were once welcoming double doors to the dining room.

This hatch is predominantly shielded by Plexiglass, leaving only a narrow slit at its base for transactions, ensuring that customers can pay for and collect their meals safely.

Once inviting double doors, now perpetually ajar, are cloaked with unsightly plywood to ward off potential vandalism, a stark contrast to the usual allure of Big Macs, McNuggets, and milkshakes.

Those daring enough to visit this establishment, which locals have cheekily renamed ‘McStabby’s,’ must navigate through a throng of homeless individuals and drug users who often gather outside.

​‘They do drugs and attack each other,’ Nick, 45, told the Daily Mail when we visited last Thursday as night began to fall.

​‘When it’s dark, it’s way worse – way more people getting assaulted and robbed,’ he continued, noting that he makes sure to leave before the sun goes down. 

A McDonald’s in downtown Seattle is so dangerous it has permanently closed its dining room and now only serves customers through a makeshift hatch reinforced with plexiglass

Customers are not allowed to enter the dining room and must order through the window seen above

Sitting on a concrete doorstep, Nick said he is no longer homeless but still hangs out in the dangerous neighborhood where he did illegal drugs for nearly a decade before getting clean a year and a half ago. 

Addicts were seen lining the trash-littered street and clustering together in front of businesses along ‘The Blade’ – the unsavory stretch of 3rd Avenue between Pine and Pike Streets. 

Many were rendered incapacitated by fentanyl – slumped over and barely conscious just blocks away from the iconic Pike Place Market.

The market is famed as an upscale foodie paradise and is the location for the first-ever Starbucks coffee shop.

But the streets surrounding it are a shadow of their clean and bustling selves from Seattle’s 1990s heyday.  

Fidgeting with his walking cane, he solemnly recalled the agony and bloodshed he witnessed firsthand. 

​‘I watched a girl get shot and killed right here,’ he said, gesturing toward a lamppost outside the McDonald’s. ‘It was a horrible shooting.’

He was referring to a January 2020 shooting that killed one woman and injured seven other people, including a nine-year-old boy.

It wasn’t long after that incident that the restaurant’s dining room closed for good. McDonald’s initially shuttered the restaurant’s dining room to comply with local Covid social distancing precautions.

Daily Mail reporter Sonya Gugliara is pictured outside the notorious Seattle McDonald’s

A group of vagrants can be seen congregating outside the McDonald’s last week. Anyone wishing to order a food must run a gauntlet of chaos and despair 

Vagrants gathered by McDonald’s in Seattle with shopping carts.  The restaurant, nicknamed by locals as McStabby’s, initially closed its dining room to comply with Covid social distancing measures but never reopened it even after the pandemic ended 

One local man named Nick, pictured, gave the Daily Mail a run down of just how terrifying the McDonald’s can be  

In January 2020, a shooting right outside the McDonald’s left one woman dead and seven others injured. Nick said he witnessed the tragedy 

​‘I’ve seen some physical assaults, just right here,’ a young employee told the Daily Mail, leaning over the counter and pointing to the sidewalk. ‘People tripping out, just a bunch of stuff.’ 

To his left, beyond the divider separating McDonald’s from the horrors outside, a man in a wheelchair was folded over on himself next to where customers had been lining up.

Another man viciously lashed out on a nearby corner, screaming belligerently as he paced up and down the road.

​The worker said he is still shaken from when a homeless man launched himself over the serving hatch and barged into the closed-off establishment. 

The culprit threatened employees and snatched food before fleeing the scene. 

Despite the terror, the staffer plainly admitted that no one called the cops because they knew it was useless. 

​He also claimed he has been followed home from work multiple times, with homeless people trying to rob him for money or clothing that could be sold off for drug money.

Even though he said he wished there was more policing in the area, he spoke plainly – seemingly defeated by the hellish circumstances. 

Two policemen urged people hanging out on the street to move because the city was going to ‘spray’ the area 

Sean Burke, 43, sat on the pavement with a sign begging for cash not far from McDonald’s

Drug users folded over on the street in Downtown Seattle, where open-air drug use appears prominent 

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson (left) has been accused of working with Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans (right) to make it harder to charge locals with doing illegal drugs in public 

Earlier that day, the Daily Mail did see two Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers near the McDonald’s. 

The pair were urging those lingering on the corner to scatter while they ‘spray the street.’ 

The city does this three times a day in the area – briefly dispersing the vagrants as the street gets hosed down with bleach and water – the cops explained.​

‘You’ll really see the violence among themselves,’ one officer, who has been on the job for just a few months, said. 

He noted that private security guards for the stores along The Blade are often attacked as well.

The officers nonchalantly discussed the mayhem, with one of them saying he has seen three stabbings alone in front of McDonald’s since the start of this year.

Official crime statistics remain unclear. The Daily Mail has reached out to the SPD for specifics.

As several drug abusers told the Daily Mail, drug charges are dropped more often than not. 

Addicts are seen lingering near a Downtown Seattle doorway, where many end up while taking cover from the rain

McDonald’s and the crime-plagued Blade are just blocked away from the iconic Pike Place Market

One of the cops explained that under SPD Chief Shon Barnes’ January 1 order, almost all drug cases will be referred to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program.

Critics from within the community and the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) have slammed LEAD as a waste of time.

‘The LEAD program, prior to the new year, was always an option for officers,’ one of the policemen explained.

It is a voluntary diversion program that drug offenders often opt for anyway, he said.

‘It’s kind of a way of getting out of jail, by putting yourself on parole before even going to prison or jail, he said. 

When asked about the program’s effectiveness, he wasn’t too sure.

‘I’m not going to say anything bad about LEAD, but most of the time when I arrest someone for drugs, and I ask if they are enrolled in the program already, they say yes.’

Officers ended the discussion when they learned an assault had occurred just around the corner of the McDonald’s.​

With little urgency – likely knowing any arrests would likely be in vain – the pair walked to the scene, searching for ‘a woman in pink.’