A family in California was horrified when they returned from a local Starbucks with several drinks, and found a red substance on two cups, including one that their 2-year-old daughter was drinking from. They inspected the smears, noticed a “strong metallic smell,” and realized there was blood in their beverages, according to a lawsuit they filed against the coffee giant.
At first, they didn’t notice that anything was wrong with one of the drinks, they claim.
“Once we drank it, then we could see on the inside of the rim that there was blood,” Amanda Vice told KTLA. Vice said that her daughter had already been licking the cup’s lid and eating the whipped cream from the drink.
According to court documents, they realized that none of them were bleeding, so they called the Starbucks. As it turns out, the complaint says, one of the employees was indeed bleeding.
When they expressed concern over drinking beverages that may have been contaminated by someone’s blood, the store manager offered them a week’s worth of free drinks, but that wasn’t enough.
“My wife and my baby just drank someone’s blood,” Louis Vice said. “It was bad.”
The Vices wanted the employee to undergo a blood test to make sure there was no risk of contracting diseases, but the store wouldn’t force the worker to do it. Instead, the family had to get their own tests done. Fortunately, the tests came back negative, but they had to go back for a second test six months later to be sure, according to their lawyer. Having their 2-year-old daughter get stuck with needles and then having to wait for the outcome of the tests was a stressful ordeal, their attorney said.
Starbucks eventually offered $1,000 to each member of the family, but that was not satisfactory. The company, meanwhile, told the local news outlet that they are prepared to go to court and defend the case.
[Image via HAKINMHAN/Shutterstock]
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