A Florida man dining at Outback Steakhouse found a delicious treat in his potato soup: a two-inch industrial bolt that chipped his tooth.
The circumstances of the chipped tooth are especially sad: the man, James Fetters, and his wife had been at a wake, and stopped at Outback for some food on their way home. When his wife felt too upset to eat the soup she had ordered, Fetters began to eat the soup, only to chomp down on the metal bolt. Outback has offered to pay for the repairs to the man’s tooth, although Fetters says they have been uncooperative.
Man Chips Tooth on Bolt in Restaurant, Outback Plans to Pay for Dental Work [Naples News] (Thanks to Reid!)
(Photo: Getty)
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Aww “nuts!”
::rimshot::
Wow at the comments on that link.
I agree with the comments posted. You didn’t see a bolt on your spoon? Please.
@Truvill: I hadn’t noticed them when I posted this. Definitely amazing.
@consumersaur:
this is better: [instantrimshot.com]
Sounds like he chewed off more than he could bite.
The restaurant was just adding some extra iron for your diet and you have the nerve to complain!
@phate: haha – you’re right!
The guy is between jobs and can’t afford the initial dentist visit, but can afford to eat at Outback?!
Was he drinking the soup from a beer bong? I think a two inch bolt would stick out of any spoon I have ever used.
@sir_pantsalot: Maybe he was slurping out of a ladle?
They tried to interview the chef but he bolted…
Anyway…
How do you *NOT* notice a two inch cast iron bolt in your soup. Besides the obvious weight difference on your spoon, it would have made a distinctive *Ting* inside the bowl as it moved around (not to be confused with the machine that goes PING).
OMG…there’s a human head in my french fries! Gimme some monay!
They guy probably chipped a tooth, had no insurance,a nd decided to screw outbakc out of the money to pay for the tooth.
How do you not see a 2 inch bolt on your spoon? Wouldn’t it feel funny lifting the spoon up?
Free meal. Free dental work.
Scam artist 1, Outback 0.
Sorry to agree with the cynics, but…a two inch bolt sticks out in an inch and a half spoon ._.; Not to mention the weight, stark contrast in color (unless it was really thick and stuck to it or something). I mean, mouths are pretty sensitive.
But, who knows, maybe he was really, really hungry, and talking to his wife about stuff while eating, and just spaced?…really, really hard?
If it were a scam, the guy would’ve retained legal rep.
Keep it stupid, Naples!
I can’t even begin to fix the spelling errors in my previous post. Can you tell people like that rile me up a bit?
@diablodevil2:
Hmm, on further reflection, I’d like to replace ‘cynics’ with ‘aggressive realists’ >.>;
2-inch industrial bolt…
Was he eating his soup with a large ladle?
I’m with you guys – can’t really see how this guy actually put the bolt into his mouth. Can we do a year-end consumerist round up and bring these people in for interviews?
I picked up a pizza from a national chain and there was a rock baked into it, or maybe a piece of asphalt. When I took it back, they had no idea how it might have gotten in there, of course, so they asked me a bunch of questions as if maybe I had put it in there in order to waste my time getting my money back (yeah, no, I didn’t want another of their special gravel-lovers’ pizza).
“There was a rat in my soup and now it’s gnawing a hole through my stomach wall. Pay up pleeze.”
Ludicrous.
My husband once discovered glass shards in the bottom of his beer mug at Outback.
The manager’s response? “Let me buy you another beer, sir.”
We haven’t been back since. I can eat a heavily buttered steak at home for a lot less $$$ (and without all the stupid up-selling), thank you very much.
“Since he doesn’t have insurance, Fetters said a dentist’s initial consultation would cost between $300 and $500, not counting the cost of repairing the tooth.”
Even knowing we’re talking about Florida, that sounds outrageously high. At my office, the initial consultation (limited exam, problem focused, CDT code D00140) would be $79. Throw in another $30 for a radiograph, and you’re still a long way from $300.
If you don’t have dental insurance, go to a fee-for-service practice that does not participate in any dental insurance plans. A lot of participating providers artificially hike up their fees to make uninsured patients subsidize the underreimbursed procedures on the insured patients. It’s wrong, but it’s virtually endemic.
And yeah, @exkon: what you said.
This is insanity. I’m agreeing with the critics on this one, how do you not notice a 2 inch bolt in your soup? I’d like to see the guys past litigation history, like the woman who sued Wendy’s for the finger in the chili that turned out to be a total scam.
Maybe it was so dark that the man didn’t see the bolt. Many restaurants these days are so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
There was a bolt in my soup, and such small portions!
/Converting to Judaism for the jokes.
Reminds me of family guy…
“Excuse me waiter, there’s a dead guy in my soup.”
The farking bolt weighs more than a spoon. It is bigger than the laddle portion of a soup spoon. 2″ in size (assuming length) has a head that is about 3/4″ in diameter. And the darn thing would clank against the bottom of the bowl and against the spoon.
Something smells about this entire claim.
…How the hell do you miss a giant industrial bolt in your soup? I actually look at what I eat before I eat it
@cedarpointfan: Yeah, that’s what I came here to say.
Who the hell doesn’t see a 2in ANYTHING on their spoon?!
Sounds like he just needed some dental work. My guess is that his tooth was already chipped. This just screams scam.
as has been said before, how do you miss something as long as your pinky? i mean i could see it being hidden IN the bowl, but as soon as it’s on the spoon a finger length hunk of metal should be kinda visible.
They screwed him. He should have gotten the scorpion fruit salad.
This was a creamy soup, the bolt was rusted brown so not shiny, and covered in soup. Outbacks tend to be noisy and dark. So if you are distracted, thinking about the departed its fairly easy to not hear the clink of the spoon hitting the bolt moreso in a noisy restaurant. It doesnt sound very different from the spoon hitting the bowl. So very mechanically the guy mustve been shovelling spoonfuls of food into his mouth and may have even wondered wow what a big brown piece of potato. And then crunch/screetch….
It can happen
I don’t get it. A 2″ bolt is unnoticed and he bit into it? WTF? I don’t know about you all, but I usually don’t bite down on my soup spoon, at least not without looking to see what I’m biting into first. And yes, wouldn’t it have made some noise?
Something just doesn’t make sense here.
I had a problem last year at a local Outback as well. I ordered the dinner Chop Steak (really a glorified hamburger without the bun), it comes with brown gravy and sauteed mushrooms, etc…. Anyway, my meal didn’t look quite right when I received it so I cut into one large gravy-covered lump and I got quite a shock! The lump was a wad of cellophane wrap with some kind of food debris on the underside. I called a manager and it turned out after they looked at it in the kitchen that it was the cellophane off a large serving plate of the Ahi Tuna. The cook thought he tossed the cellophane in the garbage, somehow it missed and went onto my plate. And they served it! OUTRAGEOUS!! I should have took pics & called the health department, but I ended up just getting my and my wife’s dinner comp’ed. Another friend of mine had to sue for damages when his wife had a slip & fall at the same local Outback. They ended up settling out of court.
My girl always complains about the 2 inch bolt.
/Deadspin’d
Also, SCAM! Although…don’t know why he isn’t trying for mo’ money…hmmm…maybe just needed that tooth fixed, and wants Outback to cover it.
@induscreed:
The act of eating soup isn’t like taking a bite of steak…it’s not on the end of a fork, it’s in a spoon. Which means you’ve got to put the spoon into your mouth, and pull the spoon out, using your teeth/lips/tongue. He never felt a 2 inch thing in his mouth before he bit down on it?
(hehe…2 inch thing in his mouth…hehe. wait..what am I, 12 years old?)
@WarOtter:
Yeah, that’s got to be some damn thick soup.
Fraud Alert!! How could anyone not see a bolt sitting in a soup bowl? It’s not like he was eating eating soup out of a big tourine with a ladle. Not to mention the bolt would have been sitting on the spoon clear as day.
This scam artist wants us to believe that between the chef who prepared the soup; the assistant who spoon it into the bowl; the waiter who carried it to the table, no one noticed a 2 inch bolt in the soup. Additionally, bolts don’t float so it wouldn’t have been inadvertently scooped up with the spoon as he was eating the soup. A counterforce is necessary to aid in pushing the bolt onto the spoon as he scooped. Otherwise the spoon would just roll the bolt around in the bowl.
This is so obviously a scam it’s laughable. I am amazed how quick Outback was to agree to pay, though it sounds like they are having second thoughts about that decision.
Pretty sweet that my tip got posted. My favorite part was the picture of the guy.
It sounds fraudish to me too, but after my mom’s wake, I could have had a human head on my spoon and not noticed it, that’s how out of it I was. Could be fraud, could be true.
@elc32955: I shoulda done that. One time when we were at the A&W in… I forget the mall, but it was in Stamford, I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, and got a bonus screw. As I was seven at the time, I didn’t bother asking for a refund, thinking “hey, let’s call Inside Edition!” (new toy, we just got it on our CBS affiliate).
Needless to say, we haven’t been back since. Then again, that location doesn’t exist any more. COINCIDENCE?
Most places you have to pay extra for industrial bolts in your soup. Don’t ruin it for the rest of us!
I’m gonna write this in to Mythbusters
This exact thing happened to me at Old Chicago a screw just like that one.. The manager came out made a joke, I didn’t chip my tooth or anything. He gave us our $50 meal for free, but he didn’t offer us anything after that. Dammit I wanted to sit there and drink some more..
@drjayphd: i miss that a&w. no one does decent rootbeer floats anymore.
I’m usually the last to jump on the blame the consumer train when it pulls through – but this is a scam. No matter how dark or noisy the restaurant, distracted the man is, creamy/chunky the soup, or large the spoon is – there’s no chance you wouldn’t notice a gigantic bolt weighing down the spoon you are eating from.
While I won’t join your average blame the consumer express, I call things as I see them. SCAM!
I noticed in the video the Florida man indicated he bit into a “large” industrial bolt, not a 2-inch industrial bolt. Just curious if the media helped embellish the story to the point of inadvertantly destroying its plausibility.
So… Outback is now serving Bullshit Soup?
How the hell did he not notice something that big while eating soup? He was eating with a spoon, right? How did he not see that in the spoon while bringing it towards his face?