The Strip Search Phone Call Scam Explained

Most people in the United States have been warned about scam phone calls and some people already consider it suspicious if someone they don't know on the other end of the line is asking for personal information. But what if the person on the other end of the line presents as an authority figure and wants something other than information?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, people across the United States realized how easily someone can be subdued into following abusive instructions from a perceived authority figure that they can't see. With only a voice on the phone, someone was able to manipulate dozens of people across the United States into abusing others. In some instances, people rejected the abusive orders given to them but, by and large, the majority of people followed the instructions without question.

In 2012, this real-life story was dramatized in the film "Compliance" and in 2022, Netflix released a docuseries entitled "Don't Pick Up the Phone" following the investigation into what became known as the strip search phone call scam. This is the strip search phone call scam explained.

One of the first reported instances of the strip search phone call scam occurred in Saybrook Township, Ohio in 1994. According to the Ohio Court of Appeals, Christina Rhodes and Marsha Bratzel were both working their shifts at the McDonald's in Saybrook Township when they were separately called into their supervisor James Turcotte's office that August. Turcotte, on the phone with a person who claimed to be a sheriff's deputy, informed them that a customer's bag had been reportedly stolen.

Both Rhodes and Bratzel were given the phone and ordered by the "sheriff's deputy" to allow Turcotte to perform a strip search. While Bratzel only allowed a pat down over her clothes, Rhodes acquiesced and removed some of her clothes. Rhodes and Bratzel subsequently sued for molestation and severe emotional distress. And this was only the first lawsuit. By 2004, the McDonald's company was facing up to three other lawsuits related to the strip search phone call scam, according to Louisville Courier Journal.

And McDonald's wasn't the only one facing legal consequences. In 1997, Pizza Hut and one of its managers, Michael Tran, were sued by Mary Degruise for "false imprisonment, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress," per the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Meanwhile, victims' accusations were frequently dismissed by both police and the restaurant companies, who believed that they were merely enacting their own scams.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

It wasn't like restaurant companies had absolutely no idea what was going on. By 2003, there had been numerous reports of strip search phone call scams in restaurants and some companies had even sent out memos warning their employees of the hoax. But the memos were mainly sent to those who owned and operated the franchise, rather than to those who actually worked in the store and answered the phones.

Even when store managers did see the memo, it didn't seem to make much of an impact. According to the Louisville Courier Journal, one assistant manager read a memo about strip search phone calls approximately a month before performing a strip search on a waitress at an Applebee's in Davenport, Iowa for over an hour and a half. OK Whatever writes that the assistant manager reported being ordered to do so by a regional manager on the phone, and although he recalled seeing the memo after the incident, he claimed that at the time of the phone call, he'd simply "forgotten" about it.

ABC reports that McDonald's claimed that they trained their workers to be aware of the strip search phone call scam and their training manual included the line "no legitimate law enforcement agency would ever ask you to conduct such a search." But few workers interviewed recalled this part of the training.

"Officer Scott" told Donna Jean Summers to take Louise Ogborn's clothes to her car, where he claimed the police would come to pick them up. Ogborn was held hostage by Summers and the caller for an hour until Summers told "Officer Scott" that she had to get back to work and couldn't continue monitoring Ogborn until the police were supposed to arrive. It was at this point that the caller proposed asking Summer's fiance, Walter Wes Nix Jr., to come to the McDonald's and watch Ogborn until the police arrived, reports the Louisville Courier Journal, despite the fact that he didn't work at McDonald's.

By the time 43-year-old Nix arrived, Ogborn had only an apron with which to cover herself. But ABC reports that when Summer left Nix alone with Ogborn and the caller, Ogborn was ordered to drop her apron and start performing various motions including bending over, dancing with her arms above her head, and jumping jacks. Nix was told by the caller that this would allow anything she'd hidden to "shake out."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Like Walter Wes Nix Jr., Tom Simms was handed the phone and the caller gave him instructions similar to the ones he'd given to Nix. But Wave3 reports that when Simms was told to order Louise Ogborn to remove her apron, he refused. "I kept saying all the time I was in there: 'make sure you keep that apron wrapped around you.'"

ABC writes that Simms informed Donna Jean Summers that the caller was asking for Ogborn to remove her apron and Summers was reportedly stunned. It was only at this point that Summers finally realized that something wasn't right about the situation. She called Lisa Siddons, the manager who the caller claimed was also on the call at the time, and realized that Siddons had no knowledge of the phone call or the situation. Siddons had been at home, sleeping.

According to the Louisville Courier Journal, while Summers hysterically begged Ogborn for forgiveness, Ogborn trembled from the cold and the shock of the experience and asked if she still had to come to work the next day.

David R. Stewart was arrested in Fountain, Florida on July 1, 2004. Tampa Bay Times reports that while executing the search warrant at Stewart's house, the police discovered other calling cards similar to the one used to call the Mount Washington McDonald's. One of the cards had even been used to call at least nine restaurants in 2004, one of which was a Burger King in Idaho Falls, Idaho that had reported a strip search phone call scam incident. Police paraphernalia was also found, including uniforms and guns, along with applications for police department jobs. ABC reports that Stewart also sometimes volunteered as a deputy in western Florida.

According to the Louisville Courier Journal, Stewart denied purchasing the cards but stated, "Amen it's over," when he was arrested. Stewart was charged with solicitation of sodomy and impersonating a police officer and was extradited to Kentucky to be brought to trial for the felony charges.

On October 24, 2006, the trial against David Stewart began. Wave3 reports that Stewart faced up to 15 years if he was convicted of "soliciting sodomy, soliciting sexual intercourse and impersonating a police officer." During the trial, Louise Ogborn testified how she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and experienced severe anxiety and depression after the incident. "I can't trust anyone. I push people out of my life because I don't want them to know what happened," per Louisville Courier Journal.

After a week of testimony and nearly two hours of deliberations, the jury found Stewart not guilty in November 2006. NBC reports that this was likely due to the fact that much of the evidence against Stewart was circumstantial with no witnesses, especially since the exact calling card used to call the Mount Washington McDonald's was never recovered. Since Stewart's arrest, reports of strip search phone scam calls have ceased, but no one else has ever been arrested or charged for the strip search phone call scam.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

In reading about the strip search phone call scams, many people believe that they would never agree to strip search someone just because someone on the phone claiming to be a police officer told them to do so. But history offers us far too many examples of how easily people can follow the instructions of someone they perceive to be an authority figure.

In many ways, the strip search phone call scam was a real-life version of the Milgram experiments. During the Milgram experiment, people were told that they were part of a study on how punishment affects learning. But in fact, the study was focused on how willing they were to give painful electric shocks to people who answered questions incorrectly. According to the University of California, Berkeley, up to 65% of people were willing to continue administering painful electric shocks all the way to the maximum voltage just because they were told to do so by the experimenter.

According to Sacred Heart University, people don't "judge the morality of their behavior in the same way they would if not following orders." This is likely why the caller chose the persona of a police officer or work superior because they are the ones that society conditions people to submit themselves to. As per Sacred Heart University, "disobedience would be considered disruptive to polite social exchange — a transgression that would cause embarrassment."