In-N-Out sues YouTuber for posing as employee & making “bizarre” claims in prank video

In-N-Out Burger has had enough with a YouTube prankster and is taking him to court over a bizarre video uploaded to his channel.

On June 20, the burger chain filed a federal lawsuit against YouTuber Bryan Arnett, which alleges he posed as an In-N-Out employee, harassed customers, and posted what the company describes as “defamatory, insulting, racially insensitive, bizarre, and lewd” videos online.

The lawsuit stems from a now-private YouTube video Arnett uploaded on April 25. As per the LA Times, in it, Arnett dressed in In-N-Out’s signature uniform: a white T-shirt, red apron, and paper hat. He then pretended to work the drive-thru at multiple locations while they were closed for Easter Sunday.

YouTuber’s In-N-Out prank video leads to lawsuit

During the prank, Arnett gave out fake menus, filmed unsuspecting customers without consent, and made disturbing comments, the lawsuit says. According to court documents, he falsely claimed In-N-Out’s food contained cockroaches and condoms and that employees “put their feet in the lettuce.”

In one TikTok clip, Arnett staged a fake cockroach discovery, telling viewers the restaurant had “a pretty bad cockroach problem.” In another moment, he asked a customer if they would be interested in sleeping with his wife, saying, “I like watching my wife sleeping with other men. Is that something you’d be interested in?”

In-N-Out says Arnett ignored multiple takedown requests and uploaded the content to his 330,000-subscriber YouTube channel anyway.

The company is now seeking a permanent ban preventing Arnett from entering any of its locations, all profits made from the video, and additional financial damages.

“By filing this lawsuit, we are putting all such individuals on notice that In-N-Out Burger will aggressively pursue all legal rights against these individuals going forward,” the company’s Chief Legal & Business Officer Arnie Wensinger said in a statement.

In a now-deleted follow-up video, Arnett acknowledged he may have crossed the line, saying, “When I went out and filmed the video, I kinda knew what kind of waters I was stepping into… I knew I was kinda teetering the line a little bit, pushing my luck.”