A Redlands family is suing Starbucks after they say their child drank from a cup that had a barista's blood smeared on it.
Amanda and Louis Vice along with his mother Rhonda Agles say back in February 2016 they stopped at a San Bernardino Starbucks to order several drinks for their family.
When they got home, they say they noticed a red smear on the side of one of the cups and that the drink had a "strong metallic smell.”
Another cup, being shared by another family member and the couple's two-year-old daughter had a similar red smear.
Amanda says she didn't notice anything was amiss at first, until she saw her daughter licking the lid and eating the drink's whipped cream.
"Once we drank it, then we could see on the inside of the rim that there was blood."
After looking among themselves, the family realized none of them were bleeding and then called the Starbucks they were at to report what they found.
It was then they were told that one of the baristas was bleeding and was removed from the floor.
The family says they were offered free drinks for a week from the manager, but they refused saying they wanted the employee to get a blood test to determine if they were HIV positive or had any other communicable disease.
A news release says that while the manager agreed, the employee wasn't forced to get the test.
"The family was then left to schedule their own blood tests, causing extreme distress for the parents as they had to watch their daughter be poked with a needle and agonizingly wait for the results.”
Amanda says the tests came back negative, but the family still had to be retested six months later to make sure.
"We felt sick to our stomachs, we shouldn’t have to worry about going to get something to drink and there being blood in our drink where we could get sick. It’s very stressful."
The family's attorney, Stan Pekler, says Starbucks offered each family member $1,000 after the incident, but it "does not begin to compensate the family for suffered injuries and damages for which Starbucks is liable.”
“They endured additional distress because Starbucks seemed to not care about their wellbeing and refused to direct the employee to undergo a blood test to ensure the family's safety."
The lawsuit presented against Starbucks is seeking damages because of their "failure to warn the family, negligence, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, battery, assault, negligent hiring, and negligent training and supervision."