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

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  Kate Taylor

  McDonald's brought back Szechuan McNugget sauce at select locations for one day - but failed to anticipate the extreme demand.  
• Police had to be called to at least one location to deal with angry crowds.
• Demand to bring back Szechuan McNugget sauce exploded after the discontinued sauce was featured on "Rick and Morty."

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

On Saturday, October 7, select McDonald's locations across the country gave away Szechuan Sauce, in response to an avalanche of demands from fans of the Adult Swim cartoon.

However, demand for the sauce far exceeded the supply.

Kate Taylor

People line up for Szechuan sauce at a McDonald's in Manhattan.

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!"

Morgan Blackburn

Yet many failed to receive the message, with dozens of people crowding inside the fast-food location and lining 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 were available and 20 to 40 sauce packets per location (reports varied), more and more people joined the crowd, hoping for some sauce of their own. 

"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 trying 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. 

Similar situations were taking place across the country, with enormous crowds of "Rick and Morty" fans showing up only to be told that there were only 20 sauce packets available.

People were outraged to find exactly how limited McDonald's  "really, really limited" roll-out of the sauce actually was. 

In Wellington, Florida, the scene heated up to such a degree that the police had to be called. 

Outrage also exploded online.

"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."

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

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

Kate Taylor

Secular, Hoffman, and Epstein with their posters. The trio planned to go to Comic Con on Sunday to have the posters signed.

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, with Epstein going back and forth to make sure no one else had started lining up. They started buying 35 cent tomato slices, in an effort to avoid being kicked out of McDonald's for not buying anything. 

At around 1:30, the crowd was "getting a little out of hand." Employees handed out numbered slips, indicating customers' places in line. At exactly 2 p.m. - with a crowd filling the store and spilling out for almost a block on the street - Epstein, Hoffman, and Secular bought the Buttermilk Crispy Tenders and had the choice between getting a poster or getting sauce.

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