News

Dead mouse found in Subway sandwich in Oregon

A customer says he found a dead mouse in a sandwich at a Subway restaurant in Lincoln City, Oregon, Portland’s KGW.com reports.

October 14, 2015

A customer said he found a dead mouse in a sandwich at a Subway restaurant in Lincoln City, Oregon, Portland’s KGW.com reports. The dead rodent was found in customer Jay Armstead’s Italian sub.

The state health department said it didn’t put anyone in danger of getting sick, according to the report.

"They [health inspectors] consulted with physicians and we followed their advice that, although it is not very appetizing, the risk of someone becoming sick due to eating lettuce with those particular circumstances were very low," explained Cheryl Connell, director of Lincoln County Health and Human Services, to KGW.

Armstead said the dead mouse was noticed before he was served his sandwich or took a bite out of it.

"It was unfortunate I was the lucky recipient," Armstead told KGW. "It was wet and dead. His tail was curled up and you could see his two front teeth."

The incident happened just before 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the Subway located at 4648 U.S. Highway 101 in Lincoln City.

Matt Jones saw the dead animal in Armstead’s sandwich.

"It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s also the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen," Jones told KGW. "I laughed because I was like, there is no way this just happened."

Armstead wanted spinach on his sandwich, so the employee scraped the last spoonful out of the bin and placed it onto the bread, according to the report

KGW called Subway franchise headquarters for comment, and they issued this statement:

"As soon as the customer alerted the owner about what happened, they were immediately given a full refund and an investigation was launched. To be cautious, all of the products in the sandwich unit were disposed of and a thorough cleaning took place, in which the Health Department gave the restaurant a clean bill of health. There were no other complaints made."

The county health department inspector studied the dead rodent, the bin it came from and also searched the entire restaurant for any sign of contamination or droppings, the report stated.

"The investigation determined that the rodent problem did not come from inside the facility. It was probably in a bag of the bagged spinach product, not from the facility itself," Connell told KGW. "Everything was sanitized and cleaned properly afterwards."

Jones told KGW he and Armstead they did not want to sue, but to make sure other customers were properly notified.

Connell told KGW Tuesday that since the State Public Health Division determined this case was not a public health emergency, there was no need to contact other people who had consumed the spinach.

KGW contacted Subway headquarters again on Tuesday, to identify the vendor which supplies the Lincoln City restaurant with bagged spinach. Alison Goldberg, communication specialist with Subway Franchise World Headquarters LLC, emailed this response: "We don’t share information about our suppliers as this is proprietary."