EDMONTON -- Some heroes wear capes. Others wear uniforms and badges. But in one Edmonton man's case, Chicken McNuggets were the weapon of choice—and the internet is buzzing about his noble deeds.
When Cody Bondarchuk went to a local McDonald's on Friday, it triggered memories of his own time spent working for the fast-food franchise more than a decade ago.
Much like Robin Hood, Bondarchuk recalled stealing from the billion-dollar company to give to those less fortunate in one particular act of rebellion.
"It was something that a lot of my coworkers did as well," he said. "It was really easy to overfill them without it looking weird when it was on the delivery line, and of course there are no cameras on the kitchen line."
He said it was a small act of kindness that he felt good about.
Little did he know just how McHappy the world would feel about his heroic act.
Since Friday, Bondarchuk's tweet has been retweeted nearly 80,000 times and received nearly 900,000 likes—not counting the number of times it was screenshotted and shared on other social media platforms like Instagram.
Why did the tweet resonate so much? "Anything that's a little dig at corporate overlords is popular," he told CTV News Edmonton.
Bondarchuk said he and his coworkers were never busted for their transgressions, but didn't get many thanks from customers who just assumed they were the benefactors of a mistake.
That's why the reaction to the tweet is so satisfying.
"I saw that Elon Musk liked it, which is very cool," he said. "Michelle Romanov from the Dragon's Den as well."
The attention has resulted in more people listening to his podcast, Heart Half Full, and he's hoping to parlay his viral moment of fame into a successful run for Edmonton City Council in the next municipal election.
"Certainly I don't want a platform just based on nuggets," he said. "But anything that gets my name out there, I'm very happy about, because a lot of those things rooted in working-class support is where the platform will go."
Bondarchuk has already updated his Twitter biography to reflect his new status as "The Robin Hood of McNuggets."
