--- title: Man Eating McDonald's Hash Brown While Driving Gets Ticket description: A man who was pulled over for talking on his cell phone while driving says that he was actually just eating a McDonald's hash brown. canonical: https://time.com/5463687/mcdonalds-hash-brown-ticket/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-26T22:20:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:10.959Z og:title: Man Enjoying McDonald's Hash Brown Gets $300 Ticket og:description: The man says he was just eating a snack og:url: https://time.com/5463687/mcdonalds-hash-brown-ticket/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8616082d8a53d17e/69893feb22fb851456e27411/mcdonalds-hash-brown.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: McDonalds-Hash-Brown og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Enjoying McDonald's Hash Brown Gets $300 Ticket twitter:description: The man says he was just eating a snack twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8616082d8a53d17e/69893feb22fb851456e27411/mcdonalds-hash-brown.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Man Enjoying His McDonald's Hash Brown Who Got a Ticket for Distracted Driving Wants Justice > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 26, 2018 10:20 PM UTC  The McDonald's logo is displayed on the packaging of a hash brown at a McDonald's restaurant on January 30, 2018 in San Francisco, California. The McDonald's logo is displayed on the packaging of a hash brown at a McDonald's restaurant on January 30, 2018 in San Francisco, California.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 26, 2018 10:20 PM UTC A [Connecticut man](http://time.com/money/5236284/taylor-swift-bank-robbery-1600-dollars-fence/) who was pulled over for talking on his [cell phone](http://time.com/4908654/cell-phone-bacteria/) while driving continues to maintain that he was actually just eating a [McDonald’s](http://time.com/5187552/mcdonalds-beef/) hash brown. After Jason Stiber was issued a $300 distracted driving ticket in April when police allegedly mistook his crispy potato snack for a cell phone, he decided to fight the charge in court. “I was eating a hash brown and he thought he saw a cell phone near my mouth,” Stiber said of the incident, according to [Times Union](https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Westport-man-goes-to-court-over-hash-brown-dispute-13412629.php). But despite the fact that Stiber says phone records show he didn’t make any calls around the time he was ticketed, he lost at trial in August. Stiber also said that he has Bluetooth and therefore has no need to hold his phone up to his face. He’s now scheduled for a retrial on December 7 at state Superior Court. “I’m going to trial for justice,” Stiber said. “He was pulled over for talking on his cellphone and given an infraction. I’m sure his claim is different,” Westport Lt. Jillian Cabana said, but could not comment further due to pending litigation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5463687/mcdonalds-hash-brown-ticket/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5463687/mcdonalds-hash-brown-ticket/"},"headline":"Man Enjoying His McDonald's Hash Brown Who Got a Ticket for Distracted Driving Wants Justice","datePublished":"2018-11-26T22:20:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:10.959Z","description":"The Connecticut man says he was just eating a snack","url":"https://time.com/5463687/mcdonalds-hash-brown-ticket/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","Bizarre","Mcdonald's","Fast Food"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8616082d8a53d17e/69893feb22fb851456e27411/mcdonalds-hash-brown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8616082d8a53d17e/69893feb22fb851456e27411/mcdonalds-hash-brown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"McDonalds-Hash-Brown","caption":"The McDonald's logo is displayed on the packaging of a hash brown at a McDonald's restaurant on January 30, 2018 in San Francisco, California.","creditText":"Justin Sullivan/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5463687/mcdonalds-hash-brown-ticket/","name":"Man Enjoying His McDonald's Hash Brown Who Got a Ticket for Distracted Driving Wants Justice"}}]}] ```