Debate heats up after alleged roach sandwich
07:36 AM CST on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV
WFAA-TV
Linda Watson saved the roaches she said she found in her sandwiches at KFC.
It was supposed to be a quick after school snack, but instead a family said it turned out more like a scene from an episode of "Fear Factor."
A family claimed it ate fast food sandwiches filled with baby roaches.
However, the real debate began after the company quickly offered a cash settlement that Linda Watson said made her even angrier.
Watson said she drove up to a KFC drive-through window in Waxahachie and came home with the surprise.
"They were all in the sandwich [and] they were alive crawling in the napkin," she said.
Her daughter, Alicia Lewis, said she ate some of the food before she saw the roaches and what she ate made her sick.
"I had diarrhea and it went on for two days," she said.
Watson kept the moldy evidence of baby roaches in her freezer, and said when she went back to complain she saw another live roach.
Health department inspectors later found two dead roaches while inspecting the same location.
"[They were] not in the food prep area," said Sonny Wilson. "One was in storage [and] the other was up closer to the drive-through window."
A pile of letters at Watson's home document negotiations with the restaurant owner's insurance company and the Watson family after the incident.
"First of all, they offered us $1,000 and I thought that was an insult for eating roaches," Watson said.
She asked for $5 million and the insurer went up to $5,000.
While the company said they want to investigate and appease the customer, they also said they are investigating Watson as well.
"We are taking this very seriously, as we do any claims about objects in the food," said Laurie Schalow, a spokeswoman for Yum! Brands, Inc., the parent company that has more than 11,000 KFC outlets around the world. "Based on her high demands, we're not ruling anything out, including possible motive."
In a widely-publicized case last year, a woman in California claimed she found a human finger in a bowl of fast food chili. Anna Ayala and her husband, Jaime Plascencia, were later convicted of planting the finger as part of a hoax. They were sentenced to stiff prison terms last week.
Watson said her only motive is justice—at somewhere between $5,000 to $1 million.
"Because it's wrong," she said. "I didn't want to eat roaches. I just wanted to eat, and if they don't think that is wrong...They are wrong for doing that to us. It's just nasty."
In spite of the roaches, the restaurant passed its inspection, hired a pest control company and remains open.
The health department director said he would still eat at the location.
However, the only time the Watson family visits the location now is with picket signs and Watson shares her feelings about the restaurant with a car bumper sticker that reads: "KFC SERVES ROACHES, BOYCOTT KFC."
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/d...stories/wfaa060123_mo_kfcclaims.31a390d9.html
07:36 AM CST on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV
WFAA-TV
Linda Watson saved the roaches she said she found in her sandwiches at KFC.
It was supposed to be a quick after school snack, but instead a family said it turned out more like a scene from an episode of "Fear Factor."
A family claimed it ate fast food sandwiches filled with baby roaches.
However, the real debate began after the company quickly offered a cash settlement that Linda Watson said made her even angrier.
Watson said she drove up to a KFC drive-through window in Waxahachie and came home with the surprise.
"They were all in the sandwich [and] they were alive crawling in the napkin," she said.
Her daughter, Alicia Lewis, said she ate some of the food before she saw the roaches and what she ate made her sick.
"I had diarrhea and it went on for two days," she said.
Watson kept the moldy evidence of baby roaches in her freezer, and said when she went back to complain she saw another live roach.
Health department inspectors later found two dead roaches while inspecting the same location.
"[They were] not in the food prep area," said Sonny Wilson. "One was in storage [and] the other was up closer to the drive-through window."
A pile of letters at Watson's home document negotiations with the restaurant owner's insurance company and the Watson family after the incident.
"First of all, they offered us $1,000 and I thought that was an insult for eating roaches," Watson said.
She asked for $5 million and the insurer went up to $5,000.
While the company said they want to investigate and appease the customer, they also said they are investigating Watson as well.
"We are taking this very seriously, as we do any claims about objects in the food," said Laurie Schalow, a spokeswoman for Yum! Brands, Inc., the parent company that has more than 11,000 KFC outlets around the world. "Based on her high demands, we're not ruling anything out, including possible motive."
In a widely-publicized case last year, a woman in California claimed she found a human finger in a bowl of fast food chili. Anna Ayala and her husband, Jaime Plascencia, were later convicted of planting the finger as part of a hoax. They were sentenced to stiff prison terms last week.
Watson said her only motive is justice—at somewhere between $5,000 to $1 million.
"Because it's wrong," she said. "I didn't want to eat roaches. I just wanted to eat, and if they don't think that is wrong...They are wrong for doing that to us. It's just nasty."
In spite of the roaches, the restaurant passed its inspection, hired a pest control company and remains open.
The health department director said he would still eat at the location.
However, the only time the Watson family visits the location now is with picket signs and Watson shares her feelings about the restaurant with a car bumper sticker that reads: "KFC SERVES ROACHES, BOYCOTT KFC."
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/d...stories/wfaa060123_mo_kfcclaims.31a390d9.html
