Local restaurant owner turns over complaint to insurance company

A local restaurant owner with a clean track record has turned over a customer's complaint about finding a dead roach in his food to his insurance company to handle with the patron.

Earl Wilson, owner of KFC at 1014 Broad St., said he met with the customer from Saturday night, David Cox of Sumter, on Monday evening and Wilson's insurance company would be contacting Cox for a follow-up investigation since he's still not satisfied.

Cox posted an image on his Facebook page late Saturday of a KFC sandwich with a dead roach on the bun and said he had purchased the sandwich that night for his son from the Broad Street fast-food restaurant. The post received numerous views and shares.

Wilson said he wasn't in the restaurant at the time of the alleged occurrence, but from what he understands Cox went through the drive-thru window between 8:45 and 9 p.m. Saturday for the purchase.

Later, he returned to the store's drive-thru after the restaurant had closed at 10:30 p.m. with the sandwich and told the manager on duty he had found a dead roach in his son's sandwich.

Wilson said his manager looked at the sandwich but didn't see a roach. She then returned to Cox his money for the purchase, apologized to him for his inconvenience, and offered him more food.

The man declined and drove off.

Employees later saw the Facebook post from Cox on the internet.

Wilson said Tuesday his five Sumter restaurants - three KFCs and two Arby's - have never had anything like this happen before. He said his KFCs have always been inspected by DHEC, KFC Corp. and an outside vendor for KFC. Pest control checks are also conducted every month, he said.

When contacted Tuesday, DHEC's local agency food team lead - James Arthur - said that KFC location has "a good inspection history," and his office had not received any phone calls or emails of complaints.

Efforts to contact Cox through his Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful.