'OK, well, I'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is' or MORE SEVERED FINGERS IN FOOD!

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WILMINGTON, N.C. - A man who ordered a pint of frozen chocolate custard in a dessert shop got a nasty surprise inside — a piece of severed finger lost by an employee in an accident.

Unlike a recent incident at a Wendy's restaurant in California, no questions of truth have been raised about the finger served up to go at Kohl's Frozen Custard and found later at home by Clarence Stowers.

Officials from the state departments of agriculture and labor went to the shop Monday, and the owner confirmed one of his employees lost part of a finger in an accident with a food-processing machine. It was not immediately clear how the severed finger got into the custard.

Wilmington television station WWAY reported that Stowers found the finger in frozen custard he purchased Sunday night.

Stowers, who did not immediately return calls Monday from The Associated Press, told the station: "I thought it was candy because they put candy in your ice cream ... to make it a treat. So I said, 'OK, well, I'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is.'"

Stowers said he spit the object out, but still couldn't identify it. So he went to his kitchen, rinsed it off with water — and "just started screaming."

Stowers said he planned to contact a lawyer.

Shop owner Craig Thomas did not immediately return a message left by the AP Monday.

Joe Reardon of the Agriculture Department's food and drug division said state officials closed the shop while the food processing equipment involved in the accident was cleaned and sanitized.

In March, a Las Vegas woman claimed she bit down on a 1 1/2 inch-long finger fragment while dining with her family at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, Calif.

Investigators have since called her claim a hoax and charged her last month with attempted grand theft related to millions in dollars of financial losses Wendy's has suffered since news of her claim broke.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

Employee: "Oh THERE it is"

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:27 (twenty years ago)

"Thanks for cleaning it."

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

Imagine losing your finger and finding it in the newspaper.

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

i bet for andy grasshopper this is like the groundhog seeing his shadow.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

Is it bad that the main "wtf" part of that story to me is that he said "to make it a treat"?

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

Dear Man,
As per Tribune p17, please return my finger posthaste. I would telephone but, well, you know.
Regards,

Fingerless Fred

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

If I just put a severed finger in my mouth, I would probably try my best to convince myself it was NOT a severed finger for a few seconds at least.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:34 (twenty years ago)

I like that the television station wwwaaaayyy reported it. I would so wwaayy report it if I heard about it first too.

Whenever I've found something in food that didn't belong, I have always just spit it out and thrwon out the rest of the food and tried to keep from vomiting. But I never try to figure out what it was. Best not to know.

― diedre mousedropping (Dave225), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 10:43 (twenty years ago)

i'd love something like this to happen to me. free money for life.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

plus a free finger

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

But let's be honest here, people: how many of us, if we had a severed finger to get rid of, would be able to resist the temptation to stick it in some food? Imagine holding that disembodied finger and swirling it around in some baked beans or a bowl of Shredded Wheat - the temptation is too much!

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

I'd totally put it in one of those Sonic Pancake-on-a-Stick things.

― adam (adam), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

I'd roll it up in a Pillsbury Crecent roll and voila! Pinkie in a Blanket!

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

If I had to find any severed body part in my food, I would totally go with a finger. I have fingers in and around my mouth all the time anyway.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)

(I work part time at a dental school.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

'dental school'

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

Is it bad that the main "wtf" part of that story to me is that he said "to make it a treat"?

It's funny because there's that ellipsis before it in the article. "You know ... to make it a treat."

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 17:47 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe the thread title is an actual quote from the article.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

I know. I can just hear him saying it.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 00:26 (twenty years ago)

hard to say with a finger in your mouth.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

Can financial losses caused to a business be counted as "grand theft" if the person who caused them doesn't get any of the money?

― Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

My mom once got a phone call from a nurse asking if she could go over to a neighbor's garage and locate the tip of a finger that he had cut off with a table saw. The nurse said if my mom got the fingertip to the hospital in time, the doctors could reattach the finger. So she went over, fished through the sawdust and found it (cut off just around the base of the fingernail, I think). She put it in a baggie with some ice and took it in, and they sewed it back on.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 00:35 (twenty years ago)

They would both be living the good life if she had dropped it into a bag of french fries instead. And he could have bought a whole new fucking hand with the money.

― diedre mousedropping (Dave225), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 11:02 (twenty years ago)

The other night I had a dream that I cut my fingers off and made risotto with them.

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 5 May 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Jizz doesn't taste that bad.

-- A homunculus of Darby Crash, .... created for the purposes of *EVIL* (showroo...) (webmail), May 5th, 2005 5:08 PM. (ex machina) (link)

― Andre Dawson (deangulberry), Thursday, 5 May 2005 01:55 (twenty years ago)

SEVERED FINGER, YOU ARE A TREAT

― Amon (eman), Thursday, 5 May 2005 02:28 (twenty years ago)

OK, now the story gets more interesting in that the dude who found the finger was back in the store 1/2 an hour after the accident, and refused to give the finger to the store owner or the doctor treating the injured guy. I understand that the guy had to have been traumatized, part of me does, but if it went as described in the article, what a total asshole.

― Hunter (Hunter), Friday, 6 May 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

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