People are furious at McDonald's after it brought back Szechuan McNugget sauce — but not enough for 'Rick and Morty' fans (MCD)

McDonald's brought back Szechuan McNugget sauce at select locations for
Police were called to at least one location to deal with angry crowds.
Demand for the discontinued sauce exploded it was

McDonald's faced the fury of fans of the cartoon "Rick and Morty" when the fast-food chain failed to provide enough Szechuan McNugget sauce on Saturday.

On Saturday, select McDonald's locations across the country gave away the sauce in response to an avalanche of demand from fans of the Adult Swim cartoon.

However, demand for the sauce far exceeded the supply.

At 1:45 p.m. at a McDonald's in New York City, a crowd of teenage boys exited the fast-food location screaming, "There's no sauce left!"

Yet many didn't receive the message — dozens of people crowded inside and lined up outside in hopes of getting either a "Rick and Morty" poster or a packet of the Szechuan sauce.

Even as some people realized that only 10 posters and 20 to 40 sauce packets were available per location (reports varied), more and more people joined the crowd.

"I left Comic Con for this," one woman in a "Szechuan Dipping Sauce" T-shirt sadly told Business Insider.

One couple said they had been told, essentially, to "f--- off" after they tried to get in line for the sauce at noon. Upon returning closer to 2 p.m., they were told that all the sauce had been claimed.

They ran out of Szechuan sa... @ Frederick

There were similar situations across the country, with crowds of "Rick and Morty" fans showing up only to be told few sauce packets were available.

People were outraged to find exactly how limited McDonald's "really, really limited" rollout of the sauce was. In Wellington, Florida, police were called to one location.

Cops are at Wellington McDo... @ Lulu Ramadan

Outrage also exploded online.

Gotta say, probably not eat... @ Kyle Grantham

@kylegrantham @McDonalds i ... @ Necross Reaper#emo#

@McDonalds I'm an adult I c... @ loney fool

"The best fans in the multiverse showed us what they got today," McDonald's tweeted Saturday afternoon. "We hear you & we're sorry not everyone could get some super-limited Szechuan."

I tried yesterday to get th... @ Tonita E Torres

@McDonalds Waited over 4 ho... @ Jonathan Bullrock

@McDonalds McDonald's emplo... @ Angel

However, for a lucky few, the chaos was worth it.

Zachary Epstein, Jackson Hoffman, and Jacob Secular were at the front of the line at a McDonald's in Manhattan. The trio — all 12 years old and in seventh grade — ran to the McDonald's before 10 a.m. Secular had gone as far as to call the others' mothers to ensure his friends were awake and ready for their mission bright and early.

McDonald's employees forced Epstein, Hoffman, and Secular to leave, telling them if they didn't get out they wouldn't be able to get the sauce. The three camped out at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, going back and forth to make sure no one else had started lining up. They started buying $0.35 tomato slices at McDonald's to avoid being kicked out for not buying anything.

At around 1:30, the crowd was "getting a little out of hand," they said. Employees handed out numbered slips to indicate customers' places in line. At exactly 2 p.m. — as a crowd filled the store, spilling out into the street for almost a block — Epstein, Hoffman, and Secular bought the buttermilk crispy tenders and could choose between getting a poster or the sauce.

All three picked the poster. Apparently, in an online taste test of the sauce, the tester had said it didn't taste like anything special.