Say What Now? Woman Claims Her Daughter Was Served a Fried Rat at a Popeyes in Harlem [Photo]

We all know (and secretly love) Popeyes’ 5 for $5 box, but a NYC woman is claiming she got an unwanted bonus during her recent trip to the chicken spot.

She claims her daughter was served a fried rat.

via NYDN:

“This is clearly a rat and they have the nerve to have a 5 rating by the Department of Health,” Rosemary Thomas posted on Facebook Sunday morning along with a picture of the offending food.

“I can only think other people might have eaten rat.”

She said that the location at 145th St. and Frederick Douglass Blvd. served the meal to her niece, sister and daughter, who reportedly was taken to an urgent care sometime afterward because of diarrhea and vomiting.

Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Personal injury attorney Paul Ajlouny told the Daily News Monday afternoon that he had been retained to represent the family, but did not have any information about what action they may take.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene inspected the Popeyes on April 21 and gave it an A grade, with a violation centering around food possibly being contaminated or discarded improperly.

However, three previous check-ins since 2013 have found “evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.”

As recently as last May, the chicken spot was called “not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.”

Popeyes’ corporate spokeswoman Renee Krapowski told the Daily News that the franchise owner had contacted the Department of Health and that a subsequent inspection found nothing that would change its rating from an A.

She also said that the owner had contacted Thomas’ family and was going to meet them Monday night, presumably to receive the suspect piece of fried food.

Popeyes’ supplier told the company that the mystery morsel is likely a chicken organ rather than a rat, Krapowski said, though she added that it would be sent to a third-party for DNA testing.

Last year a California KFC customer claimed that a piece of meat with a tail-like appendage was a breaded and cooked rodent, though the chicken chain said tests showed it was chicken.

Krapowski said that she did not have any statistics about complaints over foreign objects in Popeyes’ meals, but that she did not know of any incidents where non-chicken material was found.

Check out her original post below. What do you think — does it look like a rat to you?