A woman said she almost vomited when she found a bandage in her chicken and rice soup at Leo's Italian Grill in Palm Harbor.
"Oh my God," said Wan St. John. "Like, throw up, right. I'm scared."
St. John is originally from Thailand, and English is her second language.
David Baier said he was eating the same soup at St. John's table. He said St. John had not yet taken a bite and was stirring her soup to cool it off, when she made the discovery.
“I was unfortunate enough to taste the soup," Baier said "While she found a Band-Aid in her soup."
Baier said he took a few pictures of the bandage in the soup to document the incident.
“Taking the pictures at that time, gave us evidence that this did occur inside the restaurant," he said. "It occurred at that time and we knew as soon as they came over they would want to take the soup.”
The manager and owner came to the table and tried to blame the party for the bandage, according to Baier.
“I was appalled," he said. "I don’t have any incentive to put anything in my food. Especially, at the beginning of my meal."
“No, I not put nothing," said St. John. “No way, no way I put.”
Baier was so upset that he called 911.
We obtained a copy of that call through a public records request.
911: “9-1-1 is this a police, fire or medical emergency?”
Baier: “It’s a non-emergency call. I tried to call your non-emergency but they can’t hear me and I can’t get through.”
911: “What are you trying to report?”
Baier: “There’s a Band-Aid in our soup and we’d like to get the health department involved in this.”
911: “Okay.”
A Pinellas Sheriff's deputy responded but told Baier they don't handle those kind of calls. Baier said he then filed an online complaint with the Department of Business and Professional Regulations.
Baier’s complaint prompted a DBPR inspector to visit the restaurant on Thursday. According to the inspector’s report, he ‘did not observe any employees with cuts, burns or bandages.’
“A cut’s going to heal within that time and I didn’t expect them to find somebody with a cut on their hand," Baier said. "That person may not be working, who knows?”
Leo's Italian Grill located at 33286 U.S. 19 N., was cited for 30, mostly minor, violations. One of those violations was for a cook who touched bread with his bare hands. That violation was corrected on-site when the cook put gloves on, according to the report.
The owner of the restaurant, Ilir Karruli, 42, who goes by 'Leo', told us over the phone that he and the manager apologized to the table. Karruli said he told the group that the bandage did not come from his staff.
"We were doing our best to please them but they weren't hearing it," he said.
Karruli said he believes a 3-year-old boy with the group may have accidentally gotten the bandage in the soup, "The little boy was playing on the floor and all over the restaurant."
Baier said there's no chance the boy's responsible for the bandage and there's a way to prove it.
“They advised that they had over 20 cameras in the restaurant and they could review them. Well, bring it on,” Baier said. "Let me see ’em. Let me see what happened at that table.”
Karruli said he reviewed the surveillance video and the side of the table that St. John was sitting at was not in view of the camera.
Baier said all he wanted was for the manager to stop serving that batch of soup that night. Especially, since the pad was missing from the bandage.
“Can you please take the soup off? And they said, ‘no.’ They could potentially lose hundreds of dollars in this meal,” Baier said. “I’m not looking to sue. I don’t want any money. I just want to get this out to some of the other patrons that were there that night.”
Karruli said he did throw out that batch of chicken and rice soup in an abundance of caution.