KATY, TX (NBC/KPRC) — A young boy in Texas got a little more than just bubbles in his soda bottle.
Three-year-old Kayden was drinking a Dr. Pepper in his car seat on Sunday and didn’t quite finish it, so his grandparents put the cap back on it. But when he wanted the rest, his grandparents found something floating in the drink that wasn’t exactly refreshing.
The family claims, floating in the half-empty 20-ounce bottle of Dr. Pepper was some sort of rodent with beady eyes, small ears, and a tail.
“Pretty good size. About 3 inches long with a big tail,” John Graves, the boy’s grandfather, said.
Graves’ three-year-old grandson Kayden drank the Dr. Pepper on Sunday. “You think of rabies. You think of dirty, filthy rodents. You know, what did he ingest?” questioned Graves.
Worried, they called their pediatrician and took Kayden in. “They did blood and urine samples, contacted the state of Texas, and contacted the CDC,” Graves said.
The family also contacted Dr. Pepper. A spokesperson told them they want the bottle so they can run tests on it.
But the Graves family wants to have their own testing done before handing the bottle over to Dr. Pepper’s people. “I want to get the rat tested to see where it came from, how it got there, and if there is really any medical concerns that we need to be worried about,” said Graves.
Graves says they are considering contacting a lawyer to figure out the next steps.
Dr. Pepper released the following statement on the incident:
“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.”
