Surveillance footage from a Utah restaurant shows a woman keel over as she spits out a sip of poisonous tea that nearly killed her.
In the Aug. 10 recording, Jan Harding, 67, is seen drinking a cup of sweet iced tea poured from the self-service machine at Dickey’s Barbecue in South Jordan, Fox13 reports. Police say that beverage was accidentally laced with lye, a highly toxic cleaning chemical used to degrease deep fryers.
In the video, Harding immediately spits out the drink and braces herself, attempting to wash out the pain-inducing substance. She would later spend two weeks in the hospital healing from the chemical that "seared through [her] esophagus, leaving deep, ulcerated burns," ABC News reports.
Earlier surveillance footage shows a Dickey's employee scooping the chemical, which he thought was sugar, into a bucket to be mixed with the sweet tea.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune:
District Attorney Sim Gill said his office had "determined there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing" to show that the tainting of the sweet tea mix with industrial cleaner at the Dickey’s BBQ, 689 W. South Jordan Parkway, was anything but an accidental act and a case of poor judgment.
Harding was the first person to drink the tea that day, and therefore, the only victim. She and her family plan to enter mediation with the restaurant later this year, rather than file charges.
Like Us On Facebook |
Follow Us On Twitter |
Contact The Author
Related
Before You Go
