Autistic Girl's 'Broken Cheeseburger' Story Goes Viral

ABC News via Yaho News! ^ | 3-26-13 | By Eliza Murphy | ABC News Blogs

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A local Chili's restaurant in Midvale, Utah, might have made the grave mistake of "breaking" one little girl's cheeseburger by cutting it in half, but the waitress, manager and line cooks more than made up for it Sunday when they presented her with a brand new "fixed" one.

Seven-year-old Arianna Hill is autistic and she loves cheeseburgers. But apparently, ones that are cut in half just won't do.

"We just decided we were going to get some lunch before we were taking her to see the Easter bunny," Arianna's older sister, Anna MacLean, 25, told ABCNews.com.

However,when Arianna's burger was delivered to the table,MacLean noticed that Arianna wasn't touching it, but instead only eating her french fries.

"Her verbal skills aren't the best, but she can communicate basic things,"MacLean said."I asked why she wasn't eating and she said,'I don't want it. It's broken.'She said,'I need one that's fixed.'"

Fortunately,the restaurant didn't skip a beat in correcting the broken burger and their compassionate actions have now gone viral.

"Our waitress came back over and I felt bad. I don't really expect people to understand these special requests,so I just told her to add a new burger to our bill,"said MacLean."I just told her to charge it to us and she said,'No way.'She was just so sweet and played along with Arianna."

The Chili's server,Lauren Wells,didn't hesitate before leaning down to personally apologize for the broken burger and assured Arianna she would bring her a brand new fixed one.

"The manager came over and did the same thing.It was really a big deal.The line cooks even got involved," MacLean said."When she brought it back out,Arianna said'Oh,thank you!You brought me a fixed cheeseburger.' She sat there and looked at it and said'Oh I missed you,'and kissed it over and over again."

[Tanniker Smith]

Thanks. I reshared that.

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Helping hand: Anna MacLean with her autistic sister Arianna

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Here is a video of the incident: http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=3994467

And a link to an article with more details: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2299384/Chilli-burger-Autistic-girl-kisses-cheeseburger-fixed-kindhearted-Chilis-staff-eat-sliced-two.html