POOLESVILLE, Md. – McDonald’s franchise owner told town commissioners Monday night that his restaurant has become a daily scene of drug use, property destruction, and threats against employees — and that a serious incident is imminent.
“We are just a day away from a horrific accident happening,” Brian Cleghorn, who has owned the Poolesville McDonald’s since 1991, told commissioners at the May 18 meeting. “The kids are out of control and have a complete disregard for authority or respect for property.”
Cleghorn said the restaurant — which he called the most costly of his seven locations for property destruction — faces chronic damage year after year, far exceeding anything at his restaurants in Germantown, Gaithersburg, and Frederick. “What’s most important to me and what concerns me the most,” he said, “is the safety and security of my employees and my customers.”
The restaurant’s director described conditions he has personally witnessed: “They’re drinking inside the restaurant, they’re smoking weed inside the restaurant.” He said he has witnessed customers getting piercings in the bathrooms, leaving blood on the sinks. Managers, most of them women, have been cursed at when they intervene. One customer warned the restaurant director that the youth had guns and said he would not return. A grandfather who came in with his granddaughter made the same pledge.
The core problem, they said, is a group of roughly seven or eight individuals, mostly ages 15 to 16, too young to drive. The worst hours run from approximately 2 to 7 p.m. on weekdays.
Trespass orders have been attempted, Cleghorn said, but they are routinely ignored and difficult to enforce. When police arrive — often 30 to 40 minutes after a call — he said the response has amounted to little more than a warning. E-bikes now circle the parking lot, driving away customers who fear an accident. Families, he said, tell him the restaurant does not feel safe for children.
Community Service Officer Bruce Beardsley told commissioners that e-bike enforcement has been hampered by a lack of regulatory tools. “Our government does horrible job of dealing with modern technology in any legal sense until several years after the fact,” he said. Families, according to Beardsley, “will buy a several thousand dollar piece of equipment with motor on it and give it to a 14-year-old and say good luck.” He said he is completing a document this week covering state law, fines, and parental liability, to be distributed to schools, HOAs, and the public after legal review.
Cleghorn said that the damage extends to toilets deliberately blocked, tables and chairs broken, vinyl seating torn, and landscaping destroyed. He said the restaurant spends more on property repair each year than any of his other stores. Despite the financial toll, he and his wife have kept the restaurant open as a service to the community where they raised four children and attended public schools.
Police Announce New Downtown Patrol Team
The testimony came on the same night Montgomery County Police announced the return of a Central Business District team specifically assigned to Poolesville.
Lieutenant Mike Fernandez, deputy commander of the first district based in Rockville, told commissioners that when he arrived two years ago he concluded that Poolesville “was not getting service that I think it should be getting.” He said residents reported it had been two decades since a bike patrol officer was seen in town.
The new Central Business District team — led by a sergeant, a corporal, and two officers — will split assignments between downtown Rockville and Poolesville. The unit revives a team that was disbanded around 2018. Officers will rotate and deploy bikes stored at Town Hall.
Fernandez said the team used crime analysis to map the highest-volume call areas in Poolesville and will focus patrol there, while remaining available for issues outside those boundaries.
Sergeant Paul Bandholz — the Central Business District team leader — urged persistence and accountability. He told business owners to push past the assumption that calling police is futile. “You can’t not call the police because of reasons like that,” he said, calling for pressure on the Department of Juvenile Services when repeat offenders receive minimal consequences.
