14 DAY TRIAL // Over the weekend, a 49-year-old man in Spain passed away after, while enjoying a quiet afternoon at a restaurant in the city of Benicarló in the province of Castellón, he was served a glass of industrial cleaner instead of white wine.
According to the law enforcement officers investigating this case, the incident happened on Sunday, June 14. The report detailing the man's autopsy, which was performed yesterday, is yet to be released.
Still, it is understood that the man died due to extensive burns that he suffered to his throat, windpipe and even stomach. Following his death, the restaurant's owner was taken into police custody. Word has it that he is facing manslaughter charges.
It was all just a mishap
The preliminary police report detailing this bizarre case says that the man was served the industrial cleaner instead of the white wine he had asked for not on purpose, but by mistake.
Apparently, the dishwasher cleaner that killed 49-year-old Andrés Lorente came from an emptied bottle of wine, in turn placed in the bar's fridge. Since the cleaning fluid had no color and no odor, staff mistook it for white wine and poured the man a glass.
“Everything at the moment is pointing towards a tragedy caused by negligence rather than ill-intent,” officers investigating the circumstances that led to the 49-year-old's death said in a statement.
“The industrial cleaner appears to have been placed in an empty wine bottle in the fridge with the terrible consequences that entailed,” they went on to comment on the occurrence, as cited by Mirror.
Andrés Lorente only took one sip of the industrial cleaner before realizing that it was not white wine and putting the glass back on the table. By then, however, it was already too late.
Being undiluted, the cleaning fluid almost instantly melted away the 49-year-old's throat, windpipe and stomach. Despite the fact that the man was rushed to the nearest hospital, there was nothing doctors could do to help him, and his injuries eventually killed him.
An investigation is ongoing
Although he was not imprisoned, the owner of the Raconet bar where Andrés Lorente was mistakenly served undiluted cleaning fluid instead of white wine will nonetheless have to appear before a judge.
If the ongoing police investigation finds him responsible for the 49-year-old patron's death, the bar owner risks being charged with manslaughter and even a prison sentence.