The Mountain Dew Defense: We’d MELT a Mouse!

I remember hearing about the case of a mouse supposedly showing up in a can of Pepsi, and had assumed that it had all been settled out of court long ago. But a post today at the Consumerist shows that is not the case!

The case goes back to 2009, and here are some details:

A man who found a dead mouse in a can of Mountain Dew after taking a swig from it is suing Pepsico, a store and its manager.

Ronald Ball claims he bought a can of Mountain Dew from a vending machine located at his work place, Marathon Oil, in Wood River on Nov. 10, according to the complaint filed April 29 in Madison County District Court.

“After purchasing said can of Mountain Dew, Plaintiff opened the can and immediately became violently ill such that he began to vomit,” the suit states.

Immediately, Ball poured the Mountain Dew into a Styrofoam cup. Along with the liquid, a dead mouse plopped out of the can, Ball claims.

Before Ball purchased the can, it was sealed and had not been punctured or tampered with, the suit states.

The Mountain Dew had been purchased from defendant store Shop N’ Save, where co-defendant Paul Pohlman was store manager, the complaint says.

After finding the mouse in his soda, Ball called the number on the side of the Mountain Dew can and made a formal complaint, he says.

An adjuster investigating Ball’s complaint called him back to ask if Ball could send the mouse to the company as evidence of his claims, according to the complaint. Following the company’s request, Ball sent the dead mouse to the company in a mason jar filled with the leftover Mountain Dew from the can.

But the interesting thing noted by the Consumerist is that in the latest legal wranglings involving Pepsi changing lawyers, it has been revealed that a key defense for Pepsi is that the mouse could never remain intact in a can of Mountain Dew:

Ronald Ball, from Illinois, was told he would never have known the mouse had been in his can of soda – because it would have dissolved into jelly.

So which is worse … the possibility that a mouse managed to get into what is presumably a sealed and sterile packaging environment … or that the Mountain Dew I enjoy would dissolve a living creature into jelly?

Source: Consumerist