In the battle of man versus McDonald's machine, man comes out on top as a pair of buddies hack their way into a bunch of free burgers in Australia.
More specifically, they snagged a single burger with a whole bunch of bread on the side.
Aussies Demonstrate How To Get A Free McDonald's Burger
In a YouTube video that has racked up more than 2.6 million views (and counting), two Australians share the ingenious way they outsmarted the McDonald's machine to get a free burger and 10 patty-less burgers as a bonus.
As the pair show in the video, the first step is to put in an order of 10 burgers on the machine, which cost $1 each. Then they customized these by taking out the beef patty from the order, which cuts down the cost to $1.10 — for a burger that only costs $1.
As a result, they were credited $1 for all 10 burgers, which the pair used to buy an eleventh burger. For this last burger, they kept the patty in.
The pair's final count is: one hamburger and 10 other burgers with no patty. In the video, the two are heard chuckling gleefully over besting the self-service machine.
Viral Video Draws Worldwide Attention
It's not clear whether the clever hack can be done in McDonald's machines in countries other than Australia, but the feat is being talked about all over the web, anyway.
Many YouTube comments hailed the pair for their hack, joking that the pair "solved world hunger" and that the two "gave as much money as [they] got nutrients."
On the other hand, a number of Redditors on r/australia weren't impressed, pointing out how much of a waste of food the hack entailed or how the effort was too much for just one free burger.
McDonald's has not yet made an official statement regarding this now-public loophole. The company is likely to patch up this glitch in their system soon, but those who want to give the hack a try in hopes of scoring a free meal can still attempt it.
In the United States, McDonald's is offering a promo in their mobile app that allows consumers to purchase a Big Mac and get a second one for only 50 cents, according to USA Today.
