A woman from New York says she found a human fingertip in food she bought from a nearby eatery.
According to a civil lawsuit acquired by PEOPLE and filed at the New York County Supreme Court on August 7, Manhattan resident Mary Elizabeth Smith, 43, claims the incident occurred on Nov. 17, 2023, after she ordered a chicken wrap to go at Create Astoria, a Mediterranean restaurant in Queens. However, the eatery dismisses her claim as absurd and unrealistic.
Smith’s lawyer, Robert Menna, claims in the complaint that Smith bit into the chicken wrap and discovered human tissue—a fingertip—within.
The complaint also alleges that Smith suffered severe injuries, suffering, shock, and emotional distress as a result of the restaurant’s negligence.
When she bit into the chicken wrap she had ordered, a chunk of her finger was inside. She was fortunate not to consume it. However, Menna revealed in a statement to PEOPLE that it still traumatized her.
According to Menna, his office submitted the fingertip to a lab for analysis, and the results verified that it was female human tissue.
However, he pointed out that the restaurant claims that no female staff members were there on that particular day. Liberty Mutual, Smith’s insurance provider, has refuted Smith’s claims.
Therefore, Menna stated, we will let the court handle it.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Teddy Karagiannis, the owner of Create, described the case as wholly fake and stated that he intends to sue Smith again for slander.
“It’s just absurd,” he remarked, adding that the food at his restaurant is inspected several times before it is offered to patrons.
It isn’t feasible. Karagiannis continued, “It cannot occur in my style of operation.”
Additionally, Karagiannis asserted that Smith has refused to have the fingertip tested for DNA, which he says would prove it was not the work of one of his employees. The fingertip might have come from somewhere else, he thought.
Smith, on the other hand, reportedly told the New York Post that the event left her permanently scarred and that she needed to have intense antiretroviral treatment to guard against the possibility of contracting major illnesses.
