Patron finds part of finger in food at TGI Friday's

TGI Friday's added a new hamburger topping Tuesday night: finger. \nAt about 7:30 p.m., a patron in the College Mall restaurant received a hamburger that had a piece of a human fingertip on it. The patron saw the flesh before eating the burger and called the police.\nA Bloomington Police Department officer arrived and informed the patron that the incident was not a criminal matter and that he would have to discuss the problem with restaurant management, said BPD Detective Sgt. David Drake. \nTGI Friday's spokeswoman Amy Freshwater said the whole thing was an accident.\nShe said that shortly before the hamburger was served, one of the kitchen managers had cut his finger and was taken to Bloomington Hospital. \n"In the rush of attending to his medical needs, the other members of kitchen staff didn't realize a very small piece of his skin had fallen onto a plate and subsequently served it to a customer," \nFreshwater said.\nFreshwater said the piece of finger was "very, very small" and emphasized that the restaurant "followed all sanitation procedures completely" when cleaning the kitchen after the incident.\nShe also said the restaurant has been in contact with the patron several times after his visit and said it doesn't expect him to pursue any type of civil action. Freshwater said she thinks the restaurant will "absolutely not" suffer any loss of business because of the incident.\n"This was an accident," Freshwater said. "We acknowledge the seriousness of this incident, and we are very sorry this occurred, but it was an accident."\nShe also said customers have been understanding of the situation.\n"We had several guests in the restaurant today who said that they knew this was an accident and that they still love Friday's," she said.