Photo by Josh Bassett.

The first text came in at noon yesterday, says telecommunications lawyer Henry Levine. He responded to the “RAINCHECK” message with a question mark, and got a reply saying, “I want my burrito.”

Now Levine has received nearly 300 messages from Bethesda-area folks looking for a free burrito as part of a Chipotle promotion.

From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. yesterday, if people texted “RAINCHECK” to 888-222 they would get a coupon for a free burrito at the newly e coli-free chain. Levine thinks the mix-up happened when some phones automatically added his 240 area code to the six-digit code Chipotle provided (plus an extra number).

He says around 200 have been legitimate requests, while others take a more threatening approach—”Just send me my burrito bitch” is an example of the latter. “A bunch of frat bros four beers in texted me late last night,” says Levine.

But some of the messages have been quite sympathetic, he says, with people trying multiple times to score their free burrito. Levine responded to some of them to let them know they were barking up the wrong tree. If Levine got almost 300 mistaken messages, he says the chain “must be overwhelmed by responses.”

When Levine told Chipotle what was going on, he says they apologized to him for the hassle. “They indicated that I was not the only one.” While the company declined his offer to send screenshots of the texts so the senders could get the coupon, Levine did get five free burrito coupons.

He says that some friends suggested he play hardball with Chipotle so he could score a lifetime supply of burritos, but that “he accepted the offer.”

“I’m not a Chipotle opponent, but I’m not someone with a go-to meal there,” he says. Levine isn’t worried about getting e coli because “they would not have reopened” if it was a possibility. So what will he use his coupons on? “I’ll get a bowl with chicken and some other stuff.”

We’ve reached out to Chipotle and will update the story if we hear back.