A student from Texas, recently arrested for public intoxication after her mother’s passing, found herself mortified when her mugshot became viral, accompanied by a fabricated story suggesting she was an Olive Garden employee who attacked patrons over poor tipping.
Megan Ashlee Davis, a student at College Station in Texas, was pictured teary-eyed in a glamorous mugshot in August.
The photo circulated widely on social media, paired with a fictional tale about her alleged arrest in St. Louis, Missouri, for throwing breadsticks at Olive Garden diners who didn’t tip.
The story falsely claimed that she yelled, “unlimited breadsticks doesn’t mean unlimited free labor,” ultimately resulting in her arrest on supposed charges of assault and disorderly conduct.
Though the story was entirely fictional, her mugshot gained attention online, and social media detectives identified her despite her name not being mentioned in the false narrative.
‘It’s probably like my worst nightmare coming to reality,’ Davis told Chron.
‘People are making very inappropriate comments or AI-generated things with my mugshot.’
She claimed the mugshot was actually taken after a night out drinking on the town got out of hand.
Megan Ashlee Davis, a student at College Station in Texas, was pictured teary-eyed in a glamorous mugshot in August.
Davis attempted to report the fake post and asked her friends to do the same, but for days it remained and began popping up on other, similar pages
At the time, she was grieving her mother’s death from weeks prior and felt ‘still very hurt and angry.’
‘I guess at the time I thought I was OK and then I started drinking whatever, went to jail, and that was really embarrassing itself.
‘That was already a low point.’
Olive Garden tried to curb the rumors by commenting on the original post: “This person does not work for Olive Garden, and the incident described never occurred.”
‘The page that originally shared this false story has posted similar hoaxes involving multiple brands,’ the restaurant chain added.
Davis attempted to report the post and asked her friends to do the same, but for days it remained and began popping up on other, similar pages.
The post stated police had described her arrest as a ‘gratuity dispute that got out of control.’
The fake story further alleged that she was serving a couple with a $94 tab who didn’t tip, leading her to reportedly slam the receipt on their table.
In a TikTok video discussing the fallout, Davis said she had seen AI-generated content on X in which her mugshot had been turned into an explicit video
Olive Garden attempted to step in and quell the rumors, writing on the initial post: ‘This person does not work for Olive Garden, and the incident described never occurred’
‘As staff intervened, she shoved the woman toward the wall and accused them of ”stealing her wages”.’
In a TikTok video discussing the fallout, Davis said she had seen AI-generated content on X in which her mugshot had been turned into an explicit video.
‘It’s so disturbing. It’s disgusting. I’ve tried to report the post. Facebook is not taking it down,’ she said.
Davis said she had been in touch with law firms regarding the fake post.
‘I don’t live in St Louis and I’ve never worked at an Olive Garden a day in my life,’ she said.
Davis said she created a TikTok account solely to address the viral story, because she had since learned that videos were being created on the app about it.
The original post with the fake Olive Garden story has since been deleted.
