If You Need Another Excuse to Avoid Fast Food, This Woman Claims She Nearly Ate a Rat at Chick-fil-A

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“I felt something funny on the bottom of the bun,” she said. “I turned it over. I said to [my coworker], ‘They burned my roll really bad.’”

Manfalouti threw the sandwich down on the table and her coworker, Cara Phelan, said she “realized it was a small rodent of some sort. I could see the whiskers and the tail.” The animal was sent out for lab testing, which confirmed that it was, in fact, a small rat or mouse.

Manfalouti said she “basically lost my mind. I screamed.” She then took pictures and called the franchise owner, Dave Heffernan. “Oh, this can’t be good,” she claims he said on the call, before Manfalouti emailed him the photos and her receipt. From there, she went to the ER where she was given an IV for her nausea, and later saw a psychologist for anxiety. Over the next weeks, Manfalouti said she was nauseous and could barely eat.

Manfalouti’s lawyer, Bill Davis, said that he recently filed the lawsuit against Heffernan and the store, because they had “stonewalled” attempts to address the issue. According to the suit, Manfalouti suffered physical and psychological injuries from the incident.

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The lawsuit says, per Philly.com, that Chick-fil-A was negligent and “failed to supervise employees who intentionally and/or knowingly served a sandwich to a customer with a dead rodent baked into the bun” and “failed to have proper procedures in place to inspect their own food products before selling them to customers.”

Davis tells Philly.com that Manfalouti decided to sue after Chick-fil-A tried to blame Heffernan, who said the bakery was to blame, but the bakery’s insurance company denied they were liable.

“The franchise itself has never said who supplied the buns for their sandwiches. I have given them every chance in the world to talk to me about it and give their side, but they just referred it to their insurance company, who in turn has not engaged in any real conversation,” Davis said.

Manfalouti says she has ongoing anxiety and nightmares from the incident.