Olive Garden Accidentally Serves Alcohol To 10-Year-Old Child

Oh, no. Not this again: In today's kids-drinking-alcohol-in-restaurants news, an Indianapolis Olive Garden allegedly served a rum cocktail to a 10-year-old boy.

Local WISH News reports that the child's mother placed an order for a Wildberry Frullato, a fruit smoothie that contains no alcohol. Instead, the waitress delivered a four-ounce drink laden with rum. The boy drank half of it before anyone was the wiser. No one else at the table had ordered an alcoholic drink.

The boy was later taken to the hospital, where alcohol was found in his system. An officer on the scene described the boy as "alert," but "shaken up."

This, of course, is just the latest in a string of incidents involving alcoholic drinks accidentally served to children. Last year, there were several incidents within months of one another.

There was the 15-month-old whose mother ordered him apple juice at Applebee's and got a margarita instead. (The incident led to a retraining for the store's servers nationwide.)

Then, there was the four-year-old girl and two teenagers who were given a sample of a drink that contained peach schnapps and vodka at an Outback Steakhouse, despite assurances from the waiter that the drink was non-alcoholic. (The server involved was later fired.)

Another four-year-old was served an alcoholic mudslide drink instead of a chocolate shake at Chili's. (The incident resulted in an alcohol-ingestion overdose.)

And finally, circling back to Olive Garden, a Florida location served a two-year-old an alcoholic sangria instead of orange juice. (The boy was given fluids at a local hospital and released.)

Olive Garden released a statement about the incident explaining that the employee has been terminated and that the company is thankful the child is okay.

Comments

[awtted]

04:56 PM on 06/16/2012

I had a coworker who experienced the same thing at a Steakhouse in Springfield Mo. His son 10 at the time had ordered a coke and at the time the resaurant's kid size drinks were in smaller glasses than the adult size glasses. The server went to the bar area and according to her claim she even asked the bartender if it was the kid size coke. the bartender looked quickly as he was busy with customers and said it was the kid size coke. after the kid drank all of it but one last swallow he commented that it tasted funny. The guy i worked with took the last swallow and it it turned out to be a jack and coke. All involved knew it was an honest mistake and their dinner bill was paid for by management and i think the server and bartender were both fired. my coworker said the server was crying her eyes out over the mistake. anywho the guy i worked with said he hated to put it this way but it was almost interesting from a psycological point of view seeing how his otherwise very polite and soft spoken son was behaving while intoxicated. His son was being loud and opinionated and was telling all kinds of corny jokes. In the end nothing was really brought into public view to keep a low profile on all parties involved.

[UCBAlum]

10:40 PM on 04/24/2012

The kid was probably "shaken up" because everyone freaked out, called the police, and took him to the hospital.

Only in America.

[N0NDescript0]

03:39 PM on 04/24/2012

"This, of course, is just the latest in a string of incidents involving alcoholic drinks accidentally served to children."

Which follows fairly closely a long history of intentionally serving alcoholic drinks to children. A "string of incidents"???

[carnivaluv]

01:44 PM on 04/24/2012

A little alchohol shouldn't hurt a child enough for a hospital visit. Way back when, didn't parents use to give sick children spoonfuls of liquor to help them?

[XV8 Crisis Suit]

07:07 AM on 04/24/2012

I love how the parents rushed the kid to the hospital.

[7thcavman]

03:00 PM on 04/23/2012

"Rum cocktail?" The kid must have been wearing an eye patch and ending every sentence with "Ahrrrg."

[DanoX]

01:56 PM on 04/23/2012

YAWNNNN. Of the many millions of people served everyday in America, really? This is no more relavent than a hair in the food.

[N0NDescript0]

03:39 PM on 04/24/2012

OMG a hair in your food?!?!?!?

[laurenproof12]

01:13 PM on 04/23/2012

I don't understand how these "mistakes" happen. These are some seriously dumb people. I ran a few Applebee's, alcoholic drinks have their own glasses, they are frosted. Nothing alcoholic comes in a clear glass. Alcoholic drinks also get a black straw where non-alcoholic drinks gets a white straw. I don't understand how a server can confuse an apple juice for a margarita?!?! I'm sure other restaurants must have similar systems to prevent this. I don't know...I guess they have some bad hires out there, sometimes you just don't know someone is dumb.

[WWJJD]

02:59 PM on 04/23/2012

You ran an Applebee's and didn't know that Applebee's has done the same thing? Here is the information that you should already know!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/detroit-applebees-mistakenly-serves-alcohol-child/story?id=13345868#.T5Wmaav2Z0g

[laurenproof12]

03:04 PM on 04/23/2012

Ugh, that was EXACTLY my point. I don't understand how it happens when all those things are in place.

I would be surprised if it was the patron that put liquor in there....kinda like the finger inthe Wendy's chili years ago. People will do anything for a buck.

Pipe down on the attitude, a simple question would have done. Like I said, I ran a few Applebee's...I KNOW what happened...thanks for trying to explain it with a link when its clearly in the article above though.

[N0NDescript0]

03:40 PM on 04/24/2012

It's olive garden?

[laurenproof12]

04:23 PM on 04/24/2012

Read the article better it also mentioned cases at an Applebee's. Thank though:)

[Wendy420]

12:05 PM on 04/23/2012

Only in America would something like this become a news article. smh

[Ken Burk]

11:39 AM on 04/23/2012

When a four year old sucks down more than a shot of rum, its like an adult non-drinker pounding 5 shots at once. Alchohol on a small child is about 4-10 times more potent than for an adult. I'm sure these corporations are more than happy to cover the cost of medical supervision and an IV rather than face a negligent death or brain damage suit.

[N0NDescript0]

03:41 PM on 04/24/2012

he was 10, not 4.

[Christopher Koulouris]

08:40 AM on 04/23/2012

You have to wonder, did little Sergio realize there was something extra 'sensational' about his drink and if so was he keeping it all to himself or was he just getting obliterated wondering to himself how come mom doesn't make smoothies like this at home?

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2012/04/10-year-old-boy-gets-fuxked-up-after-accidentally-served-a-4-ounce-rum-drink/

[Meerkatx]

11:43 PM on 04/22/2012

I'm not sure articles like this are warranted. Mistakes happen and it's not like the Olive Garden with it's tens of thousands of customers served makes a daily, weekly or monthly habit of this.

While the parents have a right to be upset, at best they deserve a comped dinner.

The parents taking the child to the hospital is a over reaction on their part as I doubt he showed any signs of alcohol poisoning. In fact I would hazard a guess they did this so they can claim they had to take their child to the hospital in case they are convinced by a shyster lawyer they should sue.

[laurenproof12]

01:14 PM on 04/23/2012

Wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry?

[AmberJM]

01:20 PM on 04/23/2012

i agree. and i feel like the bartender was the one who ultimately f****d this kid's dinner up, no pun intended. wasn't he/she paying attention when they were making the drink? the police even confirmed that no alcohol had been ordered which means the server was in the right and ordered the correct "virgin" version for the kid. and yes, even if he had drank the whole 4 oz (which isn't even a lot), he would've probably just knocked out or threw up at best. i think the parent's over-dramatized it so that they could cash in on some of olive garden's "bread"sticks...if you know what I mean LOL

[Libertarian5]

09:10 PM on 04/23/2012

Visiting my family in Germany both my kids got their sip from Oma's glass when they were around ten, and none is a drinker today. Much adoo about nothing, except that some greedy parents smell blood, and will find a sharkey lawyer to try to make big bucks.

[themanname]

12:37 AM on 04/22/2012

Why would this warrant a hospital visit? Maybe if he was served something he was allergic to, peanut butter seems more threatening to kids these days.

[Meerkatx]

11:44 PM on 04/22/2012

Lawsuit fodder of course. Parents probably started seeing dollar signs the moment they realized a mistake had happened.

[Sprinks678]

10:28 PM on 04/21/2012

How does a parent not tell the different between a glass of apple juice and a margarita? They look totally different!

[Christina Coad]

02:24 PM on 04/22/2012

They're usually in kiddie cups that aren't see through with a lid on top.

[Sprinks678]

06:58 PM on 04/22/2012

I didn't think of that! Although I'm still not sure how a margarita would end up accidentally being poured into a kids cup since both are prepared in different places in the restaurant. I'm sure hoping that harming a child wasn't purposeful.

[laurenproof12]

01:15 PM on 04/23/2012

Why is someone putting a margarita in a kids cup. That's the question....that's the part that shouldn't happen. Applebee's also has clear kids cups so you can see the contents.

[lick my feet]

06:34 PM on 04/21/2012

so what. big deal.

[kareemachan]

02:02 PM on 04/22/2012

Thus sayeth a person who's not a parent.

[Wendy420]

12:07 PM on 04/23/2012

I'm a parent, and I think the hubb-ub is absurd.

[helenwheels74]

05:28 PM on 04/23/2012

the 4-year-old with alcohol poisoning (chili's) is scary! poor little liver & brain! my kid would probably be too picky to take more than a sip if something tasted a little bit 'off'.