Let’s talk about disgusting things, shall we? Excellent. Last week a Florida man claimed to have found a dead mouse (or what he thinks is a dead mouse) inside his can of Pepsi. He and his wife reported it to the company but refused to let them take the sample to their laboratory. They sent pictures to the company as requested, then contacted the FDA. The FDA wanted the sample immediately, and they gave it to them. So far they haven’t heard back from the FDA with the results (it’ll be another week and a half), nor has Pepsi contacted them. So naturally, in the interim, they’re going to the local news.

The Food and Drug Administration is testing a Diet Pepsi can that a central Florida man claims had the remains of a possible rodent inside.

Fred Denegri of Ormond Beach took a few sips from the can on July 23, only later to discover what was inside. He said the rodent was big enough that it wouldn’t come out of the can.

Pepsi officials said Wednesday they traced the can back to the manufacturing plant in Orlando and didn’t find anything wrong with the company’s quality controls and soda sampling. Spokesman Jeff Dahncke says it’s unlikely that something like this could happen during production.

Denegri called poison control after the discovery, but he didn’t become sick. The 55-year-old says he’s a Pepsi fan and will keep drinking it.

[From the Miami Herald]

Fact of the matter is, most of these claims turn out to be B.S. They’re often attempts to get money out of a company (remember the infamous Wendy’s finger incident?), and they’re not infrequent occurrences. The finger was an especially ridiculous idea, because how in the world would it have gone missing near a bowl of chili without someone noticing their finger was gone? Granted I’ve never lost any digits, but I think I’d notice. That couple is still serving jail time.

The Denegris – or at least Amy Denegri – don’t seem entirely believable either. You want to give people the benefit of the doubt and not haul off accusing strangers of mass manipulation… but you don’t want to be naive either. Amy gave an interview to her local news station – you can watch the video here. She comes across as shifty throughout the nearly ten minute segment, and her emotions are inappropriate to the context of the story she’s telling, and her speech is very halting, as though she’s speaking like a typewriter.

At the 45 second point Amy stops, tilts her head to the side and gives a big ‘ol happy smile. When she’s discussing pulling out the rodent and sealing everything off (and some gross mention of juices), she’s grinning like a cat eating fertilizer, as my grandpa would say. During the entire segment her eyes are all over the place like she’s searching for something.

The reporters got crazy specific with their questions, asking what parts of the creature would and wouldn’t come out of the can and why, what parts were attached, how they tried to get it out, etc. It was suuuuuuuuper gross. It also seemed to me like the only reason to ask those sorts of minutely detailed questions was to try to trip her up or find some inconsistency between Amy and Fred’s story. They didn’t interview Fred or explain why – perhaps he doesn’t want to be on camera. But it’s also possible he refused because it would be easier to compare their accounts with them on camera.

Eyes for Lies, a blog written by a woman who’s been identified as one of 50 people who can naturally spot deception, thinks the Denegris are full of it, and points out an enormous number of inconsistencies in their stories. To me, the biggest inconsistency is whether or not they were together when the mouse was first discovered.

I did find both Fred and Amy’s statements to the FDA. I was immediately struck by how Amy’s husband’s statement diverges from what she tells us in the video.

At two separate times, Amy states that she was with her husband. The first time she says, “Thursday night, we were outside. My husband was grilling out back.” The second time, she says, “He took one gulp, he swallowed it and just made a face. I was sitting there when it happened.”

Yet in Fred’s written statement, he says after he discovered something was in the can “I took it inside to show my wife.” Fred never mentions his wife during the time he drank the soda, or discovered what he suspected “looked like a mouse.”

Yet Amy in her video interview talks about how, “He was at the sink, so I didn’t smell it from there, he was at the sink but, um, but I was watching him and as he was pouring it out, and all of the sudden–he was pouring it out because he was just going to throw the can away, and then all of the sudden THAT started coming out. “

[From Eyes for Lies]

Eyes for Lies has several articles about the mouse fiasco and a very unique perspective, so be sure to check out the site. The commenters on their site seem to believe the public is being deceived as well. Sometimes you just get a good old fashioned hunch, and listening to Amy talk, my hunch is it’s bull. She’s really relishing the attention, which seems odd. You can practically see cartoon dollar signs line up in her eyes. The only reason I am a teeny, tiny bit predisposed to believing her is because a few years ago I found some brown gooey sludge in a bottle of Diet Pepsi. I actually drank it, felt something solid in my mouth, and spit it out. It was incredibly gross looking… I won’t go into it, you’ve read enough gross soda stories today. I called the company and they were denying it could possibly be anything before I’d even finished my story, let alone sent them the sample.

They overnighted a box to me with instructions, and I sent the sludge along the next day. A week later I got a letter telling me their lab had identified it as undigested food particles or some such thing, and said something along the lines of “That food was yours, not ours.” Not true, since I wasn’t eating at the time, and it was too big to be chilling in my mouth without my knowledge. But I figure no harm done, it was probably just solidified soda chemicals (mmmmm, chemicals), and I got two coupons for free liters of Pepsi! And now I drink Coke.

I’m guessing we’re more likely to see the Denegris led away in handcuffs than cashing a whopping check anytime soon. But hey, now that I think about it, my putrefied sludge could have been solidified mouse juices. I should probably call the news too.

After that story, I wanted the cutest mouse picture possible. Shudder.