‘Wet And Dead’ Mouse Found Curled In Subway Sub — Tainted Spinach Likely Didn’t Sicken Customers

Though he found a little mouse, teeth bared and tail curling, in his Subway Italian sub this week, Oregonian Jay Armstead isn’t angry or ready to sue the restaurant chain.

He’s just going to be a bit more careful every time he eats spinach — and apparently he loves it. Jay has an Italian sub piled with it every morning, and he also puts the leafy green in smoothies. But the spinach in his Tuesday morning sub came with a surprise: a Subway sandwich artist plopped a rodent atop the cheese and salami, which had been hiding in the bag.

And Jay got the last of the greens, KGW reported.

That means the spinach doled out from this particular Subway in Lincoln City was tainted with mouse, and Armstead wanted every customer to be notified.

“It was unfortunate. It was wet and dead. His tail was curled up and you could see his two front teeth.”

Not only did Subway reps tell him it would be impossible to track down those customers, but the state’s health department said vermin in a sub doesn’t constitute a public health emergency and thus they aren’t required to tell everyone.

Now that the story has gone viral, Lincoln City Subway customers can consider themselves notified. Luckily, the health department assured that the chances of getting ill from eating this particular spinach are very low.

Even luckier, Jay never even bit into the sandwich, thanks to the watchful eyes of his friend Matt Jones. The pair had stopped into Subway after work, about 2 p.m. Jay was famished — he hadn’t eaten in seven hours, the New York Daily News added.

Jones got his teriyaki chicken sub — with mouse-free spinach — and then Armstead watched as the Subway employee began to make his. He wanted some too, so the employee dug into the bin and grabbed a fistful, emptying the container.

Matt saw the mouse right away and quickly snapped a picture.

“I got my drink, turned around and they were in shock like something happened. There was a mouse in there. It was gross. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s also the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. I laughed because I was like, there is no way this just happened.”

The pair pointed out the mouse, curled up in eternal rest on the sub, and the manager was shocked and apologetic. He offered Jay another sandwich, but he said, “Uhh… I’ll pass.” Still hungry, he went home and made mouse-free sausages.

Health inspectors arrived immediately and investigated. Everything in the sandwich unit was thrown out, and the entire thing scrubbed down. The Subway restaurant was given a clean bill of health afterward. The investigation also determined that the dead mouse did not come from the establishment and that Subway wasn’t at fault.

The bag of greens came with the mouse already tucked inside. The mouse corpse was inspected thoroughly, and KGW didn’t report that the health department found anything alarming. The entire place was searched for contamination and droppings as well.

When probed, Subway declined to identify which vendor supplies the restaurant with bagged spinach, saying, ” We don’t share information about our suppliers as this is proprietary.”

Of course, Matt immediately posted a photo of the mouse on Facebook.

“Look at this beast of a mouse in the spinach at Subway today! Good thing we didn’t bite into it! AMAZING! WTF!! The manager was in shock!” he wrote.

As for Armstead, he called the incident “unfortunate” and “unusual,” but he is haunted by one thing more than anything else.

“How many sandwiches prior to that were served and eaten from that same tub?”

[Photo Courtesy Matt Jones Facebook]