Md. lawyer's phone flooded with text messages seeking free Chipotle burrito

BETHESDA, Md. - In an effort to appease customers inconvenienced by all of its locations being shut down during lunch on Monday, Chipotle offered its customers free burritos as a peace offering. But the restaurant chain's promotion ended up being a major problem for a Maryland lawyer.

Chipotle closed its restaurants nationwide for four hours as its 50,000 employees took part in a company-wide food safety meeting after dozens of customers fell ill at their restaurants as a result of E.Coli and norovirus outbreaks.

From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Chipotle customers were able to receive a coupon for a free burrito if they texted "RAINCHECK" to 888-222.

But for Henry Levine, those who added in an extra 2 to the number Chipotle gave out resulted in nearly 300 text message requests flooding his cell phone from people with a 240 area code.

Levine told the Washington Post:

"Some people texted five or six times, almost in despair, so I responded to them," said Levine, who is a telecommunications lawyer and understands the technicalities of why the texts were directed to him even though people didn't put in an area code. "The range of responses is enormous."

But many were not so kind to Levine when they found out he was unable to give them a free burrito.

"This isn't fit to print, but the text was essentially 'Get me my bleeping burrito you bleeping burrito, or I'll bleepity bleep you,'" he said. "You learn what people are really like when you become a social media mistake."

According to Levine's daughter-in-law on Twitter, Chipotle will apparently be providing free gift cards to her father for the trouble.