Credit: 4chan.org

"This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King," read the caption of the photo an Ohio Burger King employee posted on the online image board 4chan on Monday.

The photo showed someone in black pants and black shoes standing atop two tubs of the fast food restaurant's lettuce.

Within minutes of the posting, the site's users had extracted GPS data from the photo and worked to pinpoint the exact franchise location where the photographer had acted in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

They then began to forward the posting around to local news outlets in the area.

The three employees who were involved have since been fired, according to a statement from Burger King's corporate headquarters.

Burger King said the employee in the photo is shown violating "the company's stringer food handling procedures."

"Food safety is a top priority at all Burger King restaurants and the company maintains a zero-tolerance policy against any violations such as the one in question," the statement said.

The Burger King manager at the franchise told ABCNews.com he had no comment on the incident.