Another Severed Fast Food Finger Found

For most people, when you say "finger-licking good," they think of fried chicken. For a North Carolina man, that description now applies to frozen custard, but it’s hardly "good." Sunday evening, Clarence Stowers stopped by his favorite frozen custard parlor, Kohl’s Frozen Custard in Wilmington, and picked up a carton of his favorite flavor, chocolate. Later that evening he decided he was in the mood for a tasty treat. Shortly after he started eating what was supposed to be a smooth and creamy custard dessert, he saw a lump of something in the custard, and he thought it must be candy or some other treat that occasionally makes its way into the custard. So he put the spoonful into his mouth.

Speaking to reporters, Clarence remembered the moments before he realized the lump wasn’t a piece of candy. "I said, 'Gosh this ice cream is good.' Then I said, 'Gosh, there's something hard in my ice cream." Clarence said he wished he'd realized it was a finger before he tried to eat it. "I proceeded to put the object in my mouth. Got all the ice cream off of it, spit it in my hand, said 'God, this ain't no nut!' So I proceeded in here to the kitchen, rinsed it off with water, and realized it was a human finger, and I just started screaming," he said.

Craig Thomas, the store’s owner, confirmed that a 23-year old employee at Kohl’s did sever his finger on one of the machines earlier in the evening. "The employee was attempting to put a bucket full of chocolate ice cream into the dipping cabinet when he dropped it and attempted to catch it in mid-air," Thomas told the local news station. While grabbing for the container, the employee accidentally put his finger into the hole that dispenses the frozen custard. The beaters inside the machine grabbed his finger and cut off the tip of it. Somehow the finger ended up in Clarence Stowers’ custard. Owners of the store say that everything happened very quickly, and their first concern at that moment was helping the injured employee. When the manager on duty realized how bad the injury was, she sent the employee to the hospital immediately and went to the custard machines to turn everything off. But in those few seconds before she got to the machines, an employee from the drive-through window had come over, scooped a pint of chocolate custard into a takeout carton, and handed it out the window to Clarence, who drove away looking forward to enjoying his custard later that night.

The New Hanover County Health Department inspected the equipment, oversaw its sterilization, and allowed the store to reopen. Since custard is a dairy product, a field agent from the Department of Agriculture is handling the consumer safety investigation. Interestingly, another Kohl’s employee severed a finger in the same machine last July, at which time the State Department of Labor inspected the machine and determined that it isn’t dangerous if used properly. Now, after this weekend’s incident, investigators have launched a new investigation.

The employee involved is recovering from his injury, but he will have to get used to the loss of his finger since it is still in Clarence’s freezer. He’s keeping the evidence for use in his lawsuit against Kohl’s.