Applebee's International Inc says an internal investigation has discovered that a former employee at a Jefferson, Louisiana, restaurant cut the tip off his thumb a year ago and that this was likely the fingertip found by a customer now suing the restaurant chain.
May Deal Chambers Johnson of Jefferson Parish claims she found a fingertip in a salad she bought at the restaurant a year ago. She filed suit against the Overland Park, Kansas-based chain on June 24 in Louisiana state court, seeking unspecified damages.
In a statement on Saturday, Applebee's said "while some facts are still unclear, we now believe a former employee at this restaurant accidentally cut the very tip of his thumb last year."
The company said the man described the cut as "roughly the size of a sunflower seed."
In its statement, Applebee's said it wanted to apologize to Johnson.
"We deeply regret this isolated incident from last year," the statement said. "Food safety remains our top priority."
Johnson's attorney, Michael Darnell of New Orleans, said that he hadn't seen the statement or spoken with Applebee's officials since filing the lawsuit.
But Darnell said the statement made him question whether Applebee's and other chain restaurants were doing enough to make sure tainted food doesn't get served.
"These things will happen in a kitchen environment but the good establishments make sure the proper precautions are taken," he said, adding that health department officials should have been notified as soon as the restaurant management found out about it.
A spokeswoman for Applebee's didn't immediately return a call on Sunday seeking comment.
The case originally had echoes of a similar claim made in March against Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's International Inc, when a woman told police she found a fingertip in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's in San Jose, California.
Police later called the case a hoax and have charged the woman with conspiracy to commit fraud and grand theft.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
Heavy rain is expected to affect parts of Taiwan this week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday as a meteorologist said the active part of the annual plum rain season has started. A stationary plum rain front and southwesterly winds would bring unstable weather and abundant moisture to Taiwan from today for about a week, with the heaviest rainfall forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, the CWA said. The agency said western and northeastern Taiwan, and mountainous areas in the east and southeast, could expect showers or thunderstorms on those two days, with localized heavy rain possible. Other parts of
RSS