Woman Finds Unexpected Protein Source In Hamburger

Here at The Takeout, we see our fair share of severed finger news. There was the case of the handsome Englishman who chopped off his finger while shooting a cooking show; earlier this year, we also reported on a rogue ice cream machine's savage finger-eating rampage. Yes, the food world is full of lopped-off fingies, but finding one in a hamburger? That's enough to put anyone off their beef. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened to a woman in Bolivia.

The New York Post translated a report from Bolivian local media explaining the incident. Per the Post, the woman stopped by Hot Burger, a restaurant chain with a few locations in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She ordered a burger, took a few bites, and suddenly "felt something hard in her mouth." She took a look at the foreign object and it was unmistakably a finger.

"At the moment of eating, I chewed on a FINGER," wrote Estefany Benitez in a Facebook post. Benitez reported the incident and authorities got involved shortly after. Authorities were able to corroborate the story, temporarily closing the restaurant after what they called an "attack against public health."

So, uh, where'd the severed finger come from? Authorities reportedly learned of a recent accident in a meat processing plant affiliated with Hot Burger. "Everything indicates that the worker who was operating that meat grinding machine possibly lost two fingers," Vice Minister of Consumer Defense Jorge Silva told a local news outlet. "One of them would have appeared in a hamburger and it is not known what happened to the other."

IT IS NOT KNOWN WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER.

In any case, Hot Burger has now initiated an internal investigation to determine how "a foreign element" arrived at one of its franchise locations. Here's hoping the investigation turns up that second finger.