You've heard of a fly in the soup? How about a rat head in a bowl of chili?
A diner in Cape Coral, Florida, says he believes he found exactly that last week at a Golden Corral restaurant.
Billy Wilson usually eats at the restaurant once a week, but not any longer after getting an unappetizing ingredient.
"The first bite I took out of it was a crunch, and at the time, I was like maybe, you know, sometimes you get a hard bean inside of chili," Wilson told WFTX TV.
Wilson said he immediately spat out what looked to him like a rat's head with curly ears and snaggletooth.
Although he was eating dinner, he immediately lost his lunch.
"When I seen it, I just went into the bathroom and threw up. Ugh, I just couldn't get the taste out of my mouth," Wilson told the station. "It was just nasty."
Wilson called the manager over to his table.
"He inspected and was like, 'Wow. That is a rat,'" Wilson said, according to Live5News.com. "So he took pictures of it, moved it around a little bit, took pictures in different angles. He was like me; he was horrified."
Although Golden Corral comped the entire meal, Wilson still felt queasy. The next day he went to a hospital emergency room and was treated for gastroenteritis. Doctors prescribed medications for nausea and muscle spasms.
He insists he's not making up the story.
"They have cameras in there and everything," he told WFTX. "I'm scared of rats."
The Golden Corral corporate office is investigating the incident, but has yet to substantiate Wilson's claim, the New York Daily News reports.
"While we continue to look into the matter, we have been unable to confirm the alleged incident at our 410 Andalusia Boulevard location,” a Golden Corral spokeswoman said in a statement. “We remain committed to delivering a high-quality food and guest experience in a clean and safe environment."
Wilson and his attorney, Ray Racila, are calling on Golden Corral to review surveillance tape to show what transpired.
"Normally, you get cases like this, people take food somewhere else, open it up and something happens," Racila told WFTX. "This happened right in the restaurant where there's no question what happened. The manager is right there."
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