A teenage girl has been left ‘traumatised’ after finding a half-smoked cigarette in her Burger King meal.
Jenn Holifield claimed that her teenager Blaze, 14, discovered the cigarette last week amongst a pack of chicken fries halfway through eating them.
Jenn explained that she treated herself and her daughter to a bag of nine of the chicken snacks and jalapeno poppers from the Meridian, Mississippi branch in the US last week when they made the shocking discovery.
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The duo began to eat their $8.99 meal during the drive home, having eaten six of the fries before finding an already smoked menthol cigarette in the bag.
Jenn said: "She wanted some chicken fries and jalapeno poppers. That's all she ever gets, it's her main thing when we go there.
"She got her chicken fries and on the way home, she starts talking to me about how she smells a cigarette.
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"She's a little dramatic sometimes so I said 'there ain't no cigarette, whatever'.
"She starts eating, I start eating. She keeps saying she smells a cigarette. About six chicken fries in, she said 'oh my God, there is a cigarette in my chicken fries'. I said 'what, no way'.
"We were pulling up at home so I got out and had a look. I said 'oh my God, that's a half-smoked cigarette'.
"I couldn't believe there was a half-smoked cigarette in her chicken fries,” Jenn explained.
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The ordeal has left the girl ‘traumatised’, leaving them vowing them to never go back to the fast-food chain again.
"She started getting really upset because someone had smoked off of that. There's saliva on it. It's disgusting, she was traumatised,” Jenn admitted of her daughter.
"She's never going to eat there again and I will never eat there again.”
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Jenn claimed that she immediately called the store and was offered a full refund if she went back there, but says she didn't feel comfortable returning and accusing staff members of dropping the cig.
Jenn said: "I got in touch with a manager about 45 minutes later. He offered for me to go up there and get my money which I did not at all feel comfortable doing.
"I wasn't going down there with someone else's cigarette saying 'does this cigarette belong to somebody?' I felt very uneasy doing that.”
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Jenn said explained how she struggled to get hold of someone from head office but kept the chicken fries and cigarette in a ziplock bag along with the receipt as evidence.
She suspects that the cigarette was either planted in the bag purposely or it accidentally fell out from behind a staff member's ear.
Jenn says she also smokes but a different brand to the one found in the bag and not menthol.
"I wanted to get in touch with anybody. Regardless of how it got in there, whether they did it intentionally or it fell out from behind your ear, you shouldn't have a cigarette in a kitchen where you're preparing food.
"It was definitely not mine and no one else drives my car. Blaze is only 14 so she can't drive either."
Jenn posted a photo of the cigarette on Facebook in the hopes of raising awareness so this doesn't happen to someone else and as a way to reach out to Burger King.
Jenn said: "I posted it on Facebook because I was searching social media for the number I needed to call.
"I don't want anything from the situation other than it to be known that we found a cigarette. Some people called us liars, some said it was disgusting, some laughed. I don't find it funny that there was a cigarette in my food."
A Burger King spokesperson responded to the claims, saying: "This incident does not reflect the very high standards Burger King and its franchisees collectively share to provide guests a tasty, well-prepared meal at a fair price.
"We have reached out to the franchisee to learn more and will take necessary action to correct this issue."
Topics: News, US News, World News, Food And Drink
Gabriella Ferlita