Woman Claims She Discovered Chicken Head at McDonalds
November 30, 2000, 01:00 PM

A customer at a McDonald's restaurant in Newport News, Va., says she got more than she bargained for when she received her order.

Katherine Ortega said found a fried chicken's head in the box of chicken wings she ordered Wednesday.

Ortega said someone who wasn't looking closely could have easily mistaken the chicken's head for another piece of chicken, like the leg or a wing. The chicken's beak, the cone on top of its head and some feathers are visible.

Ortega said she wants to know how the chicken's head could have made it past inspectors and into the hands of a customer.

"I usually look at my food, but I shouldn't have to look that closely to see that,” Ortega said. “My 5-year-old probably wouldn't have looked. He probably would have thought it was a chicken leg and eaten it.”

Oretega says the manager at McDonald's offered the Ortega's another order of chicken and offered to return the chicken's head to the distribution company. Ortega declined.

The health department sent an inspector to the restaurant to look through the rest of the bag of chicken wings.

Officials didn't find anything unusual. The incident is being reported to the Department of Agriculture.

A McDonalds spokesman tells kgw.com that it is investigating the incident, and has no confirmation yet that the chicken head was definitely served by the restaurant.

(Story and photo courtesy of wvec.com)