A woman has filed a lawsuit against a North Myrtle Beach “Outback” restaurant, claiming glass was found in her sweet potato.
The lawsuit lists Angela Holland as the plaintiff and Bloomin’ Brands/Outback Steakhouse as the defendants.
On July 4, 2018, Holland was at the Outback restaurant, located at 1721 Highway 17 North in North Myrtle Beach, when she ordered a sweet potato, the lawsuit claims. When she began eating the potato, the lawsuit says she “swallowed a shard of glass, resulting in injuries, medical treatment and damages.”
The lawsuit also claims the manager, identified in the lawsuit as Sarah Fores, “stated to Plaintiff that she had determined that the glass shard in Plaintiff’s sweet potato most likely came from the glass jars that the brown sugar was kept in underneath the heat lamps in the restaurant kitchen.”
The lawsuit further claims “that as a direct and proximate result of the aforesaid negligent; reckless, willful, and grossly negligent acts of the Defendant,” Holland says she continues to suffer injuries and damages including medical expenses and “emotional distress.”
News13 reached out to the North Myrtle Beach location over the phone. A woman who identified herself as ‘Deb’ directed us to contact a corporate representative. As News13 tried to ask a follow-up question to ‘Deb’, the phone line suddenly became disconnected.
Bloomin’ Brands released the following statement on the matter Friday morning:
“We take these matters seriously. The safety of our customers is our highest priority. The company has not seen the litigation you refer to but we are familiar with the matter. As we do with any quality or safety issue, we thoroughly investigated the claim at the time and there was no evidence of broken glass that could have made its way into our food. Our brown sugar is held in stainless steel or plastic containers, not glass.”
To read the full lawsuit, click here.
