Upside down American flag at Glendale McDonalds corrected during ceremony

A picture showing an upside down flag at a Glendale McDonald's was posted to the FOX 10 Facebook Page. A Marine reservist saw the flag, cut the rope, and took it down.

The owner of the McDonald's restaurant, who is a former Marine himself, said it was all a big mistake.

He says the person who raised the flag that morning got the hooks on wrong and sent the flag up the pole upside down.

Now the rope on the flagpole has been fixed, and when the flag was raised early Wednesday morning there was a special ceremony in tribute of old glory.

The flag flew high at the McDonald's at 67th Avenue and Camelback. The Independence High School Honor Squad was on hand to raise the flag.

"We found out later we had it up wrong and we have got to correct it," said Steve Lanini, the franchise owner.

The Glendale Fire Department helped repair the damage to the rope and flagpole that happened after the Marine reservist cut it down last week. He was upset that the flag was flying upside down.

"I actually went to try to lower the flag, but it was knotted in such a way that you couldn't lower it, so I went to my car, got a knife, and cut the rope," said Elias Marzeleno.

"We hire a lot of kids on their first jobs... it is so hard to train them on everything, every aspect of the business. In this case we did not follow up with them to make sure they knew how to do the flag raising," said Lanini.

There is no need to worry about seeing an upside down flag again, the Stars and Stripes will be flying around the clock. Lanini had a special spotlight installed to highlight the flag once the sun goes down.

"But truthfully, our goal is to get it right every time," he said

Lanini said the upside down flag was not intentional. No one got in trouble, but he says he will continue to train employees on how to properly raise the flag.