A STICK TO YOUR RIBS DINNER
Toronto diner sues Burger King after swallowing thumbtacks
by Joshua Lipsky on 2/1/02 for www.meatingplace.com
Lorrie Molino, a Toronto housewife is suing Burger King of Canada for $7.7 million, alleging she suffered physical and mental injuries after swallowing two thumbtacks while eating a Whopper, according to the Toronto Star.
In a statement filed in the Superior Court of Justice, Molino claims the incident happened last March. She said that after taking a couple of bites of her Whopper, she felt “a pain in her throat as if a hard and sharp object was passing through,” the court document says.
Molino drove to a hospital where initially medical tests turned up nothing. However, six days later, the first thumbtack revealed itself through normal digestive process and three days after that, a doctor used a surgical scope to recover the second tack in what was described as a “painful” medical procedure, according to the Star.
Molino, who worked periodically as a cleaner before the alleged incident, is suing for negligence and breach of an implied warranty, saying her ability to work and enjoy life has been impaired by the incident, according to her lawyer, Marcel Strigberger. Strigberger said her client now has flashbacks, phobias about both quick service restaurants and food in general, and loss of libido.
The lawsuit contends that Burger King was negligent by, among other things, failing to inspect the Whopper before selling it and failing to warn her of “the danger of foreign objects” in its products.
Burger King's response
Rob Doughty, vice president of corporate communications at Burger King headquarters in Miami said food inspectors examined the outlet and its handling procedures, and “found nothing that would make us think that this may have happened in our restaurant.”
Doughty added that there have been no other complaints of thumbtacks being found at any of Burger King's 11,000 restaurants or in any of the 1.7 billion Whoppers sold each year.
He further said that the company has repeatedly asked Molino and her lawyer to provide a receipt to prove she was in the restaurant and to let them see the thumbtacks, but they have refused.
“That's standard procedure in the United States and we get a little suspicious, frankly, when that's denied,” he added. |
