A US couple has dragged fast-food restaurant chain Popeyes to court, alleging they found a condom-like object embedded in a piece of fried chicken they had ordered from an outlet in Houston. Justin Howard and Danielle McKinnon are seeking damages of more than $1.5 million from the chain and its parent company.
According to the lawsuit, filed on August 3 in Harris County District Court and reported by PEOPLE magazine, the couple bought chicken from a Popeyes outlet on South Sam Houston Parkway West on July 25. Mr Howard says he bit into a piece and immediately noticed what looked like a condom stuck inside it, a discovery the petition describes as turning an ordinary family meal into a frightening ordeal.
The couple say they stopped eating at once and felt nauseous, worried that they may already have swallowed contaminated food. They also say they had no way of knowing what the object actually was, how long it had been sitting in the chicken, or whether the rest of their meal had been affected too.
The lawsuit names Restaurant Brands International, the parent company that also owns Burger King, along with Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and local franchise operator AAMANA Businesses, according to a report by the Houston Chronicle. The petition raises several claims, including negligence, unsafe food handling and breach of Texas consumer protection law, as reported by Houston Stringer.
Matters reportedly got worse when the pair went back to the restaurant to complain. The lawsuit alleges that staff laughed at them and tried repeatedly to simply swap the chicken for a fresh order rather than offer a refund or look into the complaint properly. A refund was eventually given, but only after the couple pushed the issue, the petition claims.
The incident had already drawn local attention before the lawsuit was filed. Houston community activists Candice Matthews and Quanell X visited the outlet in late July, pressing the restaurant's management for a proper investigation and asking that chicken sales be paused at that location while the matter was looked into, Houston Stringer reported.
Popeyes has more than 4,000 restaurants in the United States and abroad, and the brand traces its roots back to New Orleans in 1972.
