JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Lee Graves says he was getting a Coke at a Westside McDonald's Thursday morning when he says he was given the wrong size cup.
"The girl hands me a small Coke and as I'm talking on the phone I politely whisper to her, 'ma'am this is supposed to be a large, I ordered a large coke.' Well, she mumbled something, I could not understand what she said. She shut the window," Graves recalled.
That worker then gave him the large drink he asked for and that's when he noticed something was wrong.
"As I'm leaving the parking lot the Coke just starts to explode everywhere. It erupted like a darn volcano that's a science experiment that a kid would do. I'm on the phone, didn't know what the heck happened. My initial response was is it's spewing all over my brand new truck. I don't want Coke all over my truck. So, I grab it and I take a couple of gulps to stop it from foaming. My initial impression was that it tasted like chlorine," he said.
Graves claims he found what he now believes is a bleach pod used by the restaurant for cleaning. It sent him to the hospital where he got an IV.
"The doctor at Shands called McDonald's personally and McDonald's told him there are 2 blue substances at the restaurant. There's blue latex gloves, which obviously there wasn't a blue latex glove in my drink. And they said that they use a blue bleach pod to wash their towels. And that's what we're assuming it was a blue bleach pod. And that's what the hospital treated me for was bleach and chlorine poisoning," he said.
Graves filed a police report with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Detectives asked the manager if the business uses any cleaning pods. She stated they did but only to clean the Frappuccino machine.
McDonald's at the corporate level also released a statement from the local franchise owner, saying: '"Serving my customers safe, high-quality food and beverages is a top priority for me. We take this claim very seriously and are investigating the matter."
Police say the McDonald's employee denied she put anything in Graves's drink.
