A Chinese diner has spoken of his horror at allegedly finding a “twitching” mouse in his mushroom noodle soup.
Sam Hayward, 39, claimed he had already started eating food he allegedly bought from a Chinese takeaway in Gillingham when he noticed something moving at the bottom of his bowl.
The shocked takeaway shopper, from Strood in Kent, then claimed he started filming the rodent before deciding to call the restaurant his girlfriend Emily had ordered from.
However, the diner denied ever having provided the food, and as Mr Hayward allegedly paid in cash, he and his partner were unable to prove their purchase as they had no receipt.
Mr Hayward, who runs construction company Hayward’s Building and Contractors, said he initially thought the rodent was a large fungus before noticing a “tail”.
Sam Hayward, 39, spotted a “twitching” mouse in a mushroom noodle soup he bought at a Chinese takeaway in Gillingham, Kent
The shocked construction company boss made a video of the mouse in his soup
“My wife called me and asked if I’d like something to eat and I said I’d like a jacket potato,” he said.
“She said she wanted a Chinese, so she won.
“I started to eat, about three-quarters to half-eaten, and then I thought, ‘That’s a big mushroom, isn’t it?’”
“It twitched…I’m no animal expert, but it couldn’t have been alive.”
“The tail was the first thing I saw and it just scared me.”
“I could not believe it. It made me sick. I probably spent about 25 minutes on the toilet after trying to make myself sick.
“I wanted to throw up right away. I have a pretty strong stomach, but that was another level.
“Just thinking about it makes me sick.”
Sam Hayward, 39, said the Chinese takeaway where he bought the soup denied selling him the soup
Stunned and confused about what to do next, Mr Hayward decided to record video of the mouse twitching in his diner to prove to others what had happened.
Mr Hayward explained: “I was still in shock.” I don’t know why I filmed it, but I did.
“The first thing I wanted to do was get mad at someone, so I called the diner and they said I had to prove it.”
“Emily only paid cash and we didn’t get a receipt so we couldn’t.”
Mr Hayward says the Gillingham Chinese restaurant, where he has been a regular for almost 20 years, has just denied it was their food.
He said: “I just wanted them to apologize – it’s just the headmaster.”
“I didn’t want them to be like, ‘Sam, you have free Chinese food for a lifetime’ … I wouldn’t have wanted that.”
Busy at work, Mr Hayward said he has not yet reported the incident to his local environmental health agency.
