A family in California is suing Starbucks after their 2-year-old daughter allegedly drank a Frappuccino tainted with a barista’s blood.
According to KTLA 5, the Vice family had gone to a Starbucks in San Bernardino, California on Feb. 6, 2016, where they ordered several drinks. The drinks allegedly had a “strong metallic smell,” but they didn’t think anything of it. When they returned home, however, they noticed that one of the cups had a red smear on the outside, while the cup that the 2-year-old was drinking from had blood on the inside of the rim.
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“Once we drank it, then we could see on the inside of the rim that there was blood,” Amanda Vice said, adding that her daughter had been licking the lid and eating the whipped cream.
After determining that nobody in the family had been bleeding, the family contacted the Starbucks they had gone to with their concerns. A manager informed them that one of the baristas had been bleeding earlier, but had then been taken off of the floor. They were offered free drinks for a week and promised that they’d urge the barista to get tested for HIV.
When the barista failed to get a blood test, the family was forced to schedule their own tests, which came back negative. However, they had to be retested six months later to confirm the negative results.
“This caused the family stress, nervousness, fright, anguish, grief, anxiety, worry and shock for several months while awaiting the second round of test results” officials said in a news release.
Starbucks later bumped their offer up to $1,000 for each family member that had taken sips from the blood tainted drinks, but the Vice family has chosen against accepting the offer.
“[It] does not begin to compensate the family for suffered injuries and damages for which Starbucks is liable,” the family’s attorney, Stan Pekler, said. “They endured additional distress because Starbucks seemed to not care about their wellbeing and refused to direct the employee to undergo a blood test to ensure the family’s safety.”
“We are aware of this claim that allegedly took place in 2016, and are prepared to present our case in court,” Starbucks said in a statement obtained by CBS LA.
The Vice family is suing for unspecified damages.
