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Finger part is found in custard

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 a workplace accident.

Unlike a recent incident at a Wendy's restaurant in California, no questions have been raised about the truthfulness of the claim of the finger served up at Kohl's Frozen Custard.

Officials from the state departments of agriculture and labor went to the shop to investigate Monday, and the shop's 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.

WWAY-TV in Wilmington reported that Clarence Stowers found the finger in a pint of chocolate frozen custard he purchased at Kohl's on Sunday night.

Stowers said, "I thought it was candy because they put candy in your ice cream or whatever to make it a treat. ... So I said, "Okay, well, I'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is.'

"So I proceeded to put the object in my mouth, got all the ice cream off of it and spit it in my hand. So, I came here into the kitchen and rinsed it off with water and realized it was a human finger and I just started screaming."

Stowers said he is contacting a lawyer.

Joe Reardon of the Agriculture Department's food and drug division said department workers closed the shop and supervised as the food processing equipment involved in the accident was cleaned and sanitized.

In March, a Las Vegas woman claimed she bit down on a part of a finger 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.

[Last modified May 3, 2005, 01:19:05]