A health district inspection of a Taco Bell restaurant Wednesday morning could not substantiate a customer’s claim that someone left a “chewed off” fingernail in a Mexican pizza he purchased there Tuesday night.
Still, customer Tim Dossett is not happy and is vowing to never again eat fast food.
In an interview with News Center 7’s Kate Bartley, Dossett said he picked up dinner for his family from the drive-through at the location on East Dayton-Yellow Springs Road and brought it home.
Then his wife bit into the pizza.
“Oh my god what is this?” Dossett recounted, adding that she pulled it out of her mouth and basically almost screamed, “It’s a fingernail! She threw it into the pizza box, ran into the bathroom and threw up.”
He called the experience “horrifying.”
Dossett has called Fairborn police and filed a report. He has called the store, but said the manager was less than helpful. He’s called the location’s owner. He submitted a complaint to the Greene County Combined Health District, which performed the inspection.
Laurie Fox, health district public information officer, said restaurant management and staff had no notification a health inspector was coming.
“The investigation was unable to validate the complaint as employees were properly wearing gloves at the time of inspection,” inspector Sarah Jensen said in her reported filed Wednesday. In the report, she said she also “addressed the concerns expressed by the complainant as well as proper glove use with store manager.”
Fox said the last inspection of that fast food location was in January, and there was no indication of a problem like the one Dossett alleges occurred.
“We take every complaint, regardless how silly somebody might think it is. We take every complaint very, very seriously,” Fox said.
Dossett will continue to press his case to the restaurant’s corporate management. He said he expects to hear from someone before the week is out.
“Whoever did this, I think they need to be terminated immediately. I can only imagine what else they’re doing to their food. That’s what scares me.”
Dossett said there are going to be people who will ask “how do I know it’s not your fingernail, your wife’s fingernail? I wish I had the money to do a DNA test or something like that…. I’ve heard these horror stories out there, I just never thought it would happen to us.”
Wednesday night, Rob Poetsch, a company spokesman, offered this prepared statement to WHIO-TV: “We take this allegation incredibly seriously. This restaurant is well run and has a stellar record and fantastic employees. We’re not sure how this happened, but our initial investigation showed that all team members preparing food were wearing gloves.”
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