10 Absolutely Wild Mishaps Involving Food and Condiments

For the most part, our day revolves around food. Breakfast in the morning gives us a jump start for the hours ahead. Lunch offers a much-needed break from the work day, and dinner provides an opportunity to come together with our family and share the events of the day. Snacks in between can give us the boost we need to push through those sluggish moments. However, while food provides the nourishment we need to fuel our bodies and get through the day, something as simple as the food we eat or the condiments we add has been at the center of some truly bizarre mishaps.

From canned pasta sauce being mistaken for drugs to one of the strangest food funerals in history to a marriage proposal that ended in the emergency room, these stories focus on incidents where food and condiments have taken center stage in some of the most outrageous and weird ways. Here are ten absolutely wild mishaps involving food and condiments.

Related: Top 10 Stomach-Churning Facts And Mishaps About Laxatives

10 Cheetos Dust Leads to Burglary Bust

At approximately 8:00 p.m. on February 26, 2021, (police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, responded to a call from a woman claiming that someone had forced their way through a window in her home while she and two small children were inside. Officers were quick to arrive on the scene, and thankfully, no one was harmed, and nothing was taken from the residence. Upon examining the scene, officers determined that the suspect had used a board to pry a screen off the window. However, the not-so-clever thief also left behind a bag of Cheetos and a bottle of water on their way out.

A few seconds later, the suspect, identified as Sharon Carr, emerged from the shadows. While the victim identified Carr as the suspect, it was ultimately the Cheetos residue still on her teeth) that ultimately linked her to the crime. Carr was arrested for first-degree burglary but offered no explanation for the cheesy scene.^[1]

9 SpaghettiOs Sauce Mistaken for Drugs

On July 2, 2014, 23-year-old Ashley Gabrielle Huff was arrested after police in Gainesville, Florida, found a spoon with a “suspicious residue” in her 1994 Ford Explorer during a routine traffic stop. Huff claimed that she had simply been eating SpaghettiOs straight from the can and tossed the spoon in her purse, adamant that the “suspicious residue” was nothing more than sweet, innocent spaghetti sauce. The officer, however, claimed that a field test of the spoon indicated that it was “riddled with methamphetamine.”

Despite Huff having no previous criminal history, she, unfortunately, spent a month in jail, missed her own child’s birthday, and lost her job at Waffle House before the crime lab results finally came back, indicating that Huff was indeed telling the truth- the residue on the spoon was nothing more than SpaghettiOs sauce.^[2]

8 Marriage Proposal Goes Terribly Wrong

Like many men, when Reed Harris decided to propose to his girlfriend, Kaitlin Whipple, he wanted it to be memorable. While the proposal was indeed something the couple will never forget, it didn’t quite go the way Harris had initially planned.

After their classes at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, on February 24, 2009, the couple and a group of friends decided to go to a local Wendy’s for Frosties. Harris’s plan was to stash Whipple’s engagement ring in the Frosty and capture the proposal on video. With everyone eager to see the heartwarming moment, Whipple’s friends then challenged her to a race to see who could eat their Frosty the fastest. So, rather than enjoying each spoonful, Whipple woofed down the dessert, emerging victorious.

Unfortunately, Whipple’s victory was short-lived, and it was then that Harris whispered in her ear, explaining that she had eaten her engagement ring! Naturally, Whipple was in disbelief, but a trip to the emergency room and an X-ray confirmed the amazing truth—a diamond ring was in her stomach. Given that Harris still hadn’t technically proposed, after leaving the hospital, he took Whipple to his home. With the X-ray image in one hand, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. Whipple said, “Yes.”

The story, however, does have a happy ending. With the help of some prunes and high-fiber cereal, Whipple’s engagement ring “arrived” on February 26, 2009, and after a good cleaning, she was finally able to wear it proudly… and properly.^[3]

7 The “Great Michigan Pizza Funeral”

In 1973, the town of Ossineke, Michigan, hosted one of the strangest funerals in American history, burying approximately 30,000 frozen pizzas. Why exactly would they do such a thing? That year, the FDA contacted Mario Fabbrini—a local pizza manufacturer and owner of Papa Fabbrini Pizza—about a widespread recall of canned mushrooms.

Approximately 75 million cans of mushrooms from a plant in Ohio were believed to be contaminated with botulism, and these just so happened to be the canned mushrooms Fabbrini used on his pizzas. Fabbrini submitted samples of his frozen pizzas to the FDA for testing. When two mice died after consuming them, he was ordered to recall more than 30,000 pizzas.

Despite working so hard to build his business as an immigrant, Fabbrini decided it was better to lose the 30,000 pizzas than to lose customers for years to come. However, rather than allowing his reputation to take a hit, Fabbrini devised a clever way to demonstrate accountability and organized a public burial for the recalled pizzas.

On March 5, 1973, 29,188 frozen pizzas were dumped into an 18-foot (5.4-meter) hole at a farm in Michigan. The governor delivered a moving eulogy, and once the pizzas had been given a final resting place, Fabbrini reportedly laid two colored garlands on the burial site—red gladioli to represent the pizza sauce and white carnations to represent the cheese.

Unfortunately, Fabbrini’s actions were all for naught. As it turned out, the FDA findings were wrong. The mushrooms did not have botulism, and the lab mice that died after eating Fabbrini’s samples died of an unrelated infection. Fabbrini, however, went on to sue and was able to recover $211,000.^[4]

6 Pasta Sauce Stain Unravels Alibi

Just before 3:30 a.m. on June 12, 2021, a fatal accident occurred in Miami-Dade County, Florida, when 33-year-old Brian Nathaniel Noel ran a red light and T-boned 27-year-old Dayron Casa Chaveco. Chaveco was pronounced dead on the scene. When Noel was interviewed, he claimed he was returning from a local strip club named The Office but that his cousin was behind the wheel.

However, as traffic homicide detective Michael Quinones began investigating the scene, he noticed that the passenger seat of the Infiniti G37 Noel was in was covered in yellow pasta sauce. While Noel tried to claim that it was from leftover food, the pasta sauce blanketed the seat to the point that it seemed as though no one was even sitting there. Noel undoubtedly would have been covered in sauce if he had been in the passenger seat. Ironically, his shirt had only a small stain, tipping off Quinones that Noel’s story didn’t add up.

It wasn’t until Quinones informed Noel he was conducting a criminal investigation and questioned him again that Noel finally came clean. He admitted to drinking Hennessy and Coke at the strip club and that he was indeed driving. Toxicology reports later revealed Noel’s blood alcohol content was a little more than twice the legal limit. Noel was charged with vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter, and DUI causing serious bodily injury.^[5]

5 Did You Say Moana or Marijuana?

Kensli Davis’s favorite movie is Disney’s Moana, so her mother wanted to surprise her with a character-themed cake for her 25th birthday. However, a miscommunication when ordering a birthday cake from a local Dairy Queen in Milledgeville, Georgia, in 2019 resulted in an unusual design.

Rather than receiving an ice cream cake with Moana—the strong-willed teenager living on the Polynesian island of Motunui—they received a cake with a big, green marijuana leaf and a “My Little Pony” with red eyes, a pot leaf on its bottom, smoking a joint. Apparently, instead of “Moana,” the employee at Dairy Queen heard “marijuana.”

Thankfully, the entire family was able to have a good laugh over the mishap. Although the baker apologized and offered to make a new cake, Davis declined, stating the ice cream cake was delicious. In the future, however, she will simply stick to traditional cake designs.^[6]

4 Mid-Week Barbecue Leads to Emergency Room

Allyson Kopel of Houston, Texas, doesn’t typically barbecue, but on June 19, 2019, she decided to give it a go and grill some chicken for her 12-year-old son, Zach, and his friend. After eating, Zach began complaining of pain when he swallowed but thought perhaps it was the result of a chicken bone. When the pain was still present hours later, Kopel decided to take Zach to the emergency room.

There, an X-ray of Zach’s throat revealed the source of the pain—a tiny fiber made of steel was stuck in his throat. Thankfully, the doctors were able to remove the foreign object but discovered it was a tiny bristle from a brush that Kopel had used to clean the grill prior to cooking the chicken. The nearly invisible wire had gotten stuck to Zach’s food and then stuck in his throat after eating the chicken—a meal Zach certainly won’t forget.^[7]

3 Sickening Sandwich Surprise

Stephen Forse of Kidlington, Oxfordshire, purchased a loaf of the Hovis Best of Both bread online from a supermarket in January 2009. However, as Forse was using the bread to make sandwiches for his children, he “noticed a dark-colored object on the corner of three or four slices.” While Forse initially assumed that the dark spot was nothing more than poorly mixed dough, he, unfortunately, made a gruesome discovery—the spot had fur!

Forse contacted Cherwell District Council, and when environmental health officers visited the home to collect evidence, the dark blotch was identified as an ill-fated mouse, complete with ears and fur (minus the tail).

The case eventually went to court. Premier Foods pleaded guilty to violating health laws and failing to maintain acceptable standards at its British Bakeries site in Mitcham, south London. On September 24, 2010, Premier Foods was ordered to pay $26,470 (£16,821) in fines.^[8]

2 Long-Lost Wedding Ring Found on a Carrot

Mary Grams had proudly worn her engagement ring since her husband, Norman, popped the question in 1951. Unfortunately, while Grams was doing some weeding on the family farm in Alberta, Canada, in 2004, she lost the ring. Despite searching high and low, Grams never found the ring and never told her husband about the weeding mishap.

Instead, Grams purchased a cheaper replacement and carried on as if nothing had happened, with her son being the only one who knew the truth. Surprisingly enough, when Norman died in 2012, shortly after the couple’s 60th wedding anniversary, Gram’s secret had never come to light.

While Grams assumed her original engagement ring was gone forever, the 84-year-old got the surprise of her life 13 years later.) On August 14, 2017, Gram’s daughter-in-law, Colleen Daley, who lives on the farm where Grams once lived, harvested some vegetables from the garden. It wasn’t until Daley was washing a lumpy carrot—one she had originally planned to feed to her dog—that she spotted a ring pinched tightly around the carrot, which Gram’s son immediately identified.

Surrounded by family, Grams carefully removed the ring from the carrot, which surprisingly still fit perfectly on her finger. Even though Grams wished she had told her husband the truth, she was overjoyed with the find and vowed never to let her engagement ring go ever again.^[9]

1 Saucy Translation

In 2018, Heinz launched Mayochup—a saucy combination of ketchup and mayonnaise—in the United States. However, when the combination was introduced to Canadian consumers a year later, the new condiment caused quite a stir, especially for those who speak Cree. While Mayochup might seem like nothing more than a simple combination of the condiment names, in certain Cree dialects, the name translates to “s**tfaced” or “s**t is on my face.”

The Maychup translation mishap was tweeted about after Grand Chief Jonathan Soloman of the Mushkegowuk Council in Northern Ontario pointed out the mistake. After gaining attention on the social media platform, Heinz issued a witty email response stating, “We have heard about the unfortunate translation of Mayochup in Cree, and the only thing we want our consumers, whichever dialect of Cree they speak, to have on their faces this summer is our newest condiment mash-up.”^[10]