How does a dead, decomposing rat end up in a can of frozen lemonade? It doesn’t, argued Coca-Cola, parent company of Minute Maid, defending itself in a civil lawsuit in New Hampshire this week. A woman claimed that the frozen lemonade she bought for a party contained a rat with a side helping of maggots, and the experience has left her unable to buy frozen food.

Sure, you might laugh, but paralyzing fear every time someone walks into the freezer aisle isn’t very funny. Two years after the fateful lemonade, the case went to trial. The rat even showed up, since it’s been in cold storage since the incident. That’s part of the woman’s allegations, actually: one very traumatic part of the incident is that Coca-Cola instructed her to put the animal back in a freezer until they could send a courier to pick it up, and she was stuck knowing that the freezer rat was still there for a week.

Coca-Cola countered the “eww, rat” argument with a video tour of the factory where the lemonade was packaged, experts on the life cycle of the maggot, and even doctors offering alternate explanations for her anxiety attacks.

The jury came back with a verdict yesterday. They decided in Coca-Cola’s favor.

Jury rejects claim of rat in Manchester lemonade [Union-Leader]

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