A TikTok creator who said she works a block from an Olive Garden shared what she described as firsthand accounts of a restaurant worker diving into a deep fryer. Gabriella, who posts as @gabrihellafine, said friends who claimed to have witnessed it described a scene that left some staff looking for other jobs.
Her viral video, captioned “ALLEGED pieces of the Olive Garden deep fryer story,” drew 12.2 million views, 2.1 million likes, and more than 10,800 comments. She said news outlets were not releasing full details because authorities had called it a suicide attempt, and she used the word alleged for legal reasons.
She said she has eaten at that Olive Garden and that multiple friends told her what they saw. According to those witnesses, she said, the man arrived for a 4 o’clock shift high on PCP, began taking off his clothes, and started playing in the deep fryer while people screamed and tried to stop him.
Creator cites witnesses who said the worker dove in three times
She said witnesses told her he looked “possessed.” She explained that PCP, as she described it, can remove a person from the “driver’s seat,” block pain, and shut off the frontal lobe, so he most likely felt no pain. Some witnesses, she said, reported that he stated he felt hot and appeared to think the fryer was water he could use to cool down.
@gabrihellafine ALLEGED pieces of the Olive Garden deep fryer story #truecrime #story
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He did not jump in once or twice, she said. Witnesses told her it happened three times, and on the third time, he “dove in the deep fryer headfirst.” She pointed to industrial fryers to address people who doubted the equipment’s size.
Someone pulled him out, she said. A second ambulance was called because other people were getting burned while trying to help. The restaurant was evacuated. She said customers were given free meals, but some still asked for to-go boxes. People told them, she recalled, “no, you gotta get the f–k out. Somebody is burned alive back there.”
Witnesses she cited said the man lost both eyes and was heavily sedated at the Lehigh Burn Center. She stated that this was not confirmed. Claims that he had died were also unconfirmed and had only been posted by unverified sources, she said. Witnesses described him as a young kid, maybe a year or two out of high school. An employee later told her he was a busboy, not a cook.
She said she does not believe it was a suicide attempt. PCP can cause hallucinations, she said, and witnesses told her he was not screaming or crying. They said he was pulled back and “you could just see nothing behind his eyes.” Police were not releasing information because they called it a suicide attempt, she said.
She added that people who were there told her they were so traumatized they were looking for other work. She called the event “traumatic” and said she was sick for days after hearing about it and hearing ambulances pass her workplace. Dangerous confrontations in the food service industry are not isolated, such as when a Taco Bell employee allegedly warned a coworker before throwing boiling water.
According to American Addiction Centers, PCP is a dissociative hallucinogen that can cause hallucinations, detachment, bizarre behavior, a sense of invulnerability, numbness, and an inability to feel pain. The creator urged viewers to research the drug and stressed that her account was word of mouth.
Several commenters treated the worker as someone’s child rather than a news item. One wrote, “This is somebody’s son. Somebody’s friend. This is so sad.” Another said sympathy belonged with the staff: “I don’t feel bad for him, I feel bad for the people who had to witness that.”
Others questioned whether the restaurant would keep using the same equipment, with one saying, “And everyone will eat out of that fryer forever cos you KNOW they won’t replace it.” A further commenter argued co-workers might have a case, writing, “Friends can sue. Management know he was a history of showing up to work like this but nothing was done .”
According to an NDTV World report, an unidentified cook at an Olive Garden in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, died on January 30, 2026, after plunging his head into a deep fryer in what officials called a suicide attempt.
That report said he removed his clothing first, and a female employee was hurt trying to stop him. Trooper Lauren Lesher stated, “This incident was a suicide attempt, and out of respect for the individual and their family, we do not release information.”
It has not been confirmed that the Williamsport case is the same incident described on TikTok. Violent incidents at Olive Garden locations are not limited to employee suicides, as a woman was allegedly forced to marry a man at gunpoint in New Hampshire.
Viewers reacted to Gabriella’s video with a mix of sadness for the worker’s family, concern for the staff who said they saw it, and anger at customers who still asked for leftover food. One viewer focused on those customers instead of the injured worker, writing, “Capatilism is crazy. Someone melting in front of you, and they want their free food and to go boxes from the show.”
Another said they could not picture the person in charge that night: “I could not imagine being the manager trying to handle this situation.”
