Starbucks Suit: 'My Wife, Baby Just Drank Someone's Blood'

Calif. family sues chain after blood from barista found in their beverage cups
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 8, 2018 7:17 AM CST
Starbucks Suit: 'My Wife, Baby Just Drank Someone's Blood'
This photo shows Starbucks cups with a new design at a Starbucks coffee shop in New York on Nov. 27, 2017.   (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

A California family has suffered "stress, nervousness, fright, anguish, grief, anxiety, worry, and shock for several months," says a release on a lawsuit they just filed—all because of a trip to Starbucks. KTLA reports on Amanda and Louis Vice, who say they visited a San Bernardino Starbucks in February 2016 with their 2-year-old daughter and Louis' mom. They ordered a bunch of beverages, including one with whipped cream that their toddler drank, but when they got home, they noticed something: a red smudge on the side of one cup, as well as a "strong metallic smell" emanating from one of the drinks, their suit notes. They then checked out their daughter's cup and "we could see on the inside of the rim that there was blood," Amanda Vice says. The complaint notes when they called Starbucks, the store admitted a barista had been bleeding and had been removed from behind the counter.

That's when it hit them. "My wife and my baby just drank someone's blood," Louis Vice says. “It was bad." The family says they had their blood tested for disease (though they'll have to go back in six months to get retested), and they asked the Starbucks manager to make sure the bleeding barista also got tested—something they say the manager agreed to but ultimately didn't "force" the barista to do. Starbucks originally offered the family free drinks for a week, then $1,000 each, per the Vices, but they decided to seek damages instead via the suit, especially since they say Starbucks didn't make the employee get tested, per CBS Los Angeles. The complaint charges Starbucks with negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault, among a laundry list of other complaints. A Starbucks rep tells KTLA it knows about the complaint and will present its case in court. (More Starbucks stories.)

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