Michigan Man Sues After Finding Rat's Foot in Olive Garden Soup

A Michigan man has filed a lawsuit against Olive Garden after finding a foreign object in his bowl of minestrone soup.

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Thomas Howie was eating dinner at the Olive Garden restaurant in Warren when he discovered something very unusual in his mouth.

"I took a bite, felt something stab the inside of my cheek, it felt like a needle," said Howie."I lunged and choked myself almost, so when I hacked it up and realized, into a napkin, it was, uh."

After Howie spit out the foreign object, he discovered that it was a rat's foot. He immediately snapped a picture and please note, the images included in the video below may be disturbing to some.

Howie tells Detroit's WJBK-TV that he's keeping the rat's foot in his freezer as a way of preserving the evidence.

Attorney Daniel Gwinn is representing Mr. Howie. His attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement with the restaurant chain have been unsuccessful. A lawsuit was filed last Friday (8/18).

"We were also very disappointed by what I perceived to be a very cavalier attitude," said Gwinn.

Howie tells the TV station that it's been five months since the incident occurred and that it's still affecting him emotionally.

He went on to say that he was bothered in particular by a flippant comment, allegedly made by an Olive Garden employee.

One staff member in particular: "His comment was quite rude: 'We don’t even serve meat in our minestrone,'" Howie said. "I was kind of shocked, like why would you even say something like that?"

An Olive Garden spokesperson issued a statement today, saying in part, "We have no reason to believe there is any validity to this claim."