Woman Fabricates Hot Coffee Burn Claim Against McDonald's: Officials

It was a ruse even Kramer couldn't have come up with. Well, maybe.

A San Bernardino County woman faces 21 charges after state insurance regulators say she fabricated a claim against McDonald’s, saying she suffered second-degree burns from spilled coffee.

Selena Edwards' supposed evidence in her claim against the fast-food giant were bogus burn photos the 38-year-old found on the Internet, according to the California Department of Insurance.

Insurance officials said the Victorville woman submitted a workers' compensation claim saying that she was burned at a McDonald’s drive-thru when she was handed a hot cup of coffee and the lid wasn't secured. The coffee spilled on her right hand, she claimed.

In her injury claim, she included photos of a hand with second-degree burns, but detectives discovered that some of the photos had been copied from a hospital website, insurance officials said.

Officials said Edwards went so far as to submit counterfeit documentation of treatment she claimed she had received from a local hospital.

She faces charges of insurance and workers’ compensation fraud, false statements and false evidence associated with an alleged fraudulent claim. Edwards was expected in court on Monday, but her preliminary hearing was reset to Dec. 18.

She had pleaded not guilty to all counts. Attempts to reach her public defender, Matt  Magorien, were unsuccessful on Tuesday.

Some might remember a famous lawsuit against McDonald's in 1994, when a woman spilled scalding hot coffee on herself and was hospitalized.

The next year, Seinfeld spoofed the case in a well-known episode where Kramer sued the restaurant after a coffee mishap.
 

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