14 DAY TRIAL // An Iowa couple who bought dinner from Ottumwa’s Southside McDonald’s late last month believe the burgers they were served up were topped with marijuana.
Brittany Songer says her fiancé Cory Long ordered two McDoubles from the McDonald’s eatery located at 222 Richmond Avenue and brought the food to her working place on the evening of April 26.
The 23-year-old woman, who is pregnant, says the Southside McDonald’s is her favorite restaurant and she frequently orders food from there, but that evening she was dissatisfied with their services. She claims that when she took a bite of the burger, she realized it had marijuana on it.
“Cory brought me food and I offered a bite to my two-year-old son, luckily he didn’t take one. Then I took a bite of my burger and got mad at Cory. It tasted bad ...and when I opened the burger the cheese was just covered with weed,” Songer told the Ottumwa Post.
Neither Brittany nor her partner suffered side effects or needed medical attention as a result of ingesting bites of the burger, but they decided to go to Southside McDonald’s to complain about the issue and called the police to help handle the matter.
The Ottumwa Police Department is currently investigating the matter and drug tests are being conducted on the two McDoubles at the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation. The results are expected back in approximately two months.
Lieutenant Jason Bell of the Ottumwa Police Department stressed out that for the moment the presence of marijuana in Songer's meal is just a supposition.
“So far it is just alleged that it is marijuana, we haven’t gotten any results back from the lab in reference to the substance on the burgers,” he said.
But on the other hand, the mom-to-be is convinced her burger was laced with pot.
“Once I opened those burgers, you couldn't smell McDonald's anymore. You could only smell the illegal drugs that were on it,” the woman explained.
A lawsuit against the restaurant is possible if the tests do come back positive for marijuana, and the charge to be pressed would be Administering a Harmful Substance, a Class D Felony, Ottumwa Post informs.
Meanwhile, the police are trying to investigate the allegations as thoroughly as possible, and to determine the exact circumstances of the incident; they have also gathered surveillance footage from McDonald’s.
“It is essentially under investigation and a lot of things have to be examined, especially in circumstances like this when it is reported against a business in the community. We have to be very thorough,” said Lt. Bell.