This Taco Bell Now Closed Afternoons After Becoming High School Fight Club

If I ran a Taco Bell or any other fast food restaurant, I’d do anything to keep my doors open during the afternoon hours to make money from customers grabbing late lunches, early dinners, and mid-afternoon snacks. But one Bell eatery in California says it can’t be open in the afternoons thanks to local high school kids who have turned the franchise into a fight club.

According to CBS San Francisco [Warning: multiple auto-play video ads that you can't stop or mute], a Taco Bell in Antioch, CA, has not only become an after-school hangout for local teens, but also a place for angry adolescents to work out their personal disputes without fear of being called to the principal’s office.

“At school you get suspended or something for that,” explains one student, “If you’re not at school you go to the plaza and fight and get away with it.”

Another student tells CBS that people are bringing weapons with them.

And with a new school year creating all sorts of new feuds between pimply pugilists, Taco Bell employees tell CBS that the fighting has reached a new level.

“One time a girl knocked over all of our stuff,” says one worker. “All the stuff on the front counter, she just knocked everything off and she threatened one of my coworkers and told her she was going to kill her.”

She says that was enough for the coworker to quit. And even the students who fight outside of the restaurant end up coming to the Bell to regroup and plan their next bout.

“It’s getting worse,” says the employee.

Her boss recently posted a notice explaining that the Taco Bell will be closed from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Police say they are working with the businesses in the area, but that it’s hard to police hundreds of teenagers.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist