A man is suing Heineken after he allegedly got violently ill and developed PTSD from drinking a beer with two dead geckos
Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
In a lawsuit filed last week, George Toubbeh claims he purchased cans of Heineken beer from a Ralph's Grocery (a regional grocery chain owned by Kroger) in Fountain Valley, California. Toubbeh drank a can of the beer in August 2015, noticing a "foul taste."
Toubbeh then says he immediately experienced severe abdominal pain and began vomiting. His daughter allegedly examined the can and found two geckos inside.
"When discovered, the geckos had not been decomposed at all and were likely alive when the beer was poured and sealed into the cans in the bottling and/or canning facility," the suit reads. "Based upon information and belief, the subject geckos likely got into the Heineken canning facility and into a can before the Heineken beer was poured and the top was sealed."
Toubbeh was violently ill and had to visit the emergency room, the suit claims, experiencing "severe stomach pains and cramps, loss of sensation, hyperactive bowel movements, and nearly complete loss of appetite" in the days following the incident."He also suffered from extreme anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder ("PTSD") as a result of finding the two geckos in his Heineken beer," the suit reads.
Toubbeh is demanding that Heineken, Kroger, and local distributors pay for his medical expenses, loss of earnings (as he missed work following the incident), and other damages. Heineken did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
As Consumerist notes, this isn't the first time that people have accused beverage makers of accidentally selling cans with critters packed inside. In April, a South Dakota man claimed he drank from a can of Coke with a mouse sealed inside - something that Coca-Cola says would be impossible, as the mouse would have decomposed.
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