Police Officer Discovers 1-Inch Bolt in Arby’s Roast Beef Sandwich

In what appears to be either gross incompetence or willful malice, a Birmingham, AL police officer discovered a 1-inch bolt in his sandwich that he purchased at a popular fast food chain.

While working late, the law enforcement officer stopped at a local Arby’s to grab a bite to eat. Much to his shock and dismay, when he bit into his sandwich he also bit into the metal bolt.

The officer had gone through the drive-thru window, picked up his food and took it back to the station to eat when he found the unpleasant surprise.

AL.com reports “Birmingham police sergeant finds 1-inch bolt in Arby’s sandwich”:

A Birmingham police sergeant is biting mad after he bit into a 1-inch bolt in his Arby’s Classic Roast Beef sandwich.

Sgt. Patrick Cosby said he doesn’t know if the bolt was intentionally placed there because he is a police officer – there have been similar incidents around the country in what officers feel is a continuing anti-police sentiment – or whether it was a machine malfunction, which Arby’s officials claim.

But either way, he said, it’s unacceptable.

“I don’t know how you make a sandwich with a bolt that large in it and not be intentional,” Crosby told AL.com. “I can’t wrap my head around that.”

Christopher Fuller, a senior vice president for communications with Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc., provided this statement on the incident: “We take this matter very seriously and conducted an immediate investigation. After reviewing video footage from our kitchen speaking with our team members, we are confident no one was targeted in this instance. We have a long-standing tradition of supporting our men and women in uniform, and we are currently working with the guest to resolve the matter.”

The incident happened Thursday, June 1, while Cosby was working late on the department’s Operation Eagle crime-fighting effort. He went through the drive-thru at Arby’s on Seventh Avenue South in downtown Birmingham, where he ordered the Classic Roast Beef meal.

Cosby was in uniform and driving his city car, which also is equipped with police lights. The employee in the drive-thru greeted him with a “Hey Officer.” “They clearly know I’m a police officer,” he said.

He was first handed his drink, and then his bag of food, which he took back to police headquarters. “I took the first bite into the sandwich, I mashed down on something really hard,” he said. “I pulled back and spit it out and looked into the sandwich. There’s a massive bolt laying there. I’m kind of in shock.”

“I’m playing this out in my head,” he said. “I wondered if it was intentionally done.”

The Arby’s in question is vehemently denying that the bolt was introduced into the police officer’s food intentionally and cites store videos as proof. It should be pretty easy to investigate whether it was an accident, if a bolt is missing from a meat slicer then the mystery is solved.

A more nefarious thought would be if someone put the object in his food intentionally which the police officer suspects. Such a thing would be consistent with incidents around the country where malicious fast food and restaurant workers have been caught tampering with the meals of law enforcement officers.

One way or another, it’s a public relations problem for Arby’s and Sgt. Cosby has a heck of a good case for a lawsuit.