When I am scanning the news, I usually take a quick look at AP’s Strange News because, you know, it’s news and it’s strange and stuff.
What is concerning me is that hardly a week goes by that a Strange News item doesn’t come out of my home state of Ohio, which is round on the ends and hi in the middle but isn’t particularly known for peculiarity. That may change if people keep serving thumbs as croutons:
- Stark County Health Commissioner Bill Franks said an employee at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in the Canton suburb Jackson Township was chopping lettuce at about 7 p.m. Monday when he cut off a part of his left thumb, including part of the fingernail.
Employees at the restaurant about 70 miles south of Cleveland searched for the tip of his finger, but could not find it. The area was cleaned and sanitized, but the lettuce was placed in the cooler. The lettuce was then used for salads the next day.
“It wound up being served at lunch time Tuesday to a 22-year-old woman,” Franks said.
She had eaten most of her salad when she put the human tissue in her mouth, Franks said.
She thought it was a piece of gristle, a health department report said. She then alerted a manager.
Red Robin spokesman Dwayne Chambers said that employees, in their haste to get the injured man to a doctor, failed to follow the chain’s procedures and throw out all food in the area.
“We clearly had a breakdown,” he said. “We are incredibly sorry about what happened.”
….Red Robin has been ordered to train the staff on safe food procedures.
Both the customer and the employee will be tested for blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis and HIV
If ever there was a mental anguish lawsuit deserving a bulky settlement, this is it.