Man says grandson found 'filthy' surprise inside Dr. Pepper bottle
KATY, Texas -- A Texas grandfather says a dead rodent was found inside his young grandson's bottle of Dr. Pepper.
Floating in the half-empty 20-ounce bottle of Dr. Pepper was some sort of rodent -- with beady eyes, small ears and a tail.
John Graves, of Katy, said his three-year-old grandson, Kayden, drank the Dr. Pepper on Sunday, May 8th after they bought it in Galveston.
The boy didn't finish the soda, so they put the cap back on.
"When they opened it they found something floating in there," Graves said. "Pretty good size. About three inches long with a big tail. You think it's rabies. You think of dirty, filthy rodents. What did he ingest?"
Graves told KPRC that he called a pediatrician and took his grandson in for some tests.
"They did blood and urine samples, contacted the state of Texas and the CDC," Graves said.
The family says they also contacted Dr. Pepper.
The company told them to send in the bottle so they can run some tests.
However, Graves says he wants to have his own testing done before he hands the bottle over.
Dr. Pepper-Snapple released the following statement to KPRC:
"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our consumers. We take all consumer complaints very seriously, are very concerned about the call we received today from Mr. Graves and are investigating it as best as we can.
What we know from our experience is that given the controls and safeguards we have in our production facilities it is virtually impossible for any foreign object to enter any container during the bottling process. All of our containers enter our facility on pallets in our warehouse and remain covered until the moment they are placed on our high-speed filling lines. Once on the filling lines, they are inverted and rinsed out before they are filled and capped.
We have offered to dispatch a courier to pick up the product to take it out for testing by a third party forensics laboratory, but the consumer has declined this request. This lab would be able to analyze any rodent that got into the product, determine how it entered the container and even inspect the contents of its stomach. This process can take 6-8 weeks to yield conclusive findings. Until we have the opportunity to review the contents, we don't have a way to do a full investigation."