Cook Accused Of Spitting In Food At Budd Lake, New Jersey Pub
BUDD LAKE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- If you have ever sent a meal back to a restaurant kitchen because it wasn't quite right, you have probably worried about those old stories that someone back there might spit in your food before returning it.
But as CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez reported, such stories are not always urban legends or old wives' tales. A cook at a pub in Budd Lake, New Jersey was arrested this week after he allegedly spat in someone's entrée.
John Stagg, 32, could be every diner's worst nightmare, Sanchez reported. The now ex-employee of Kennedy's Pub in Budd Lake stood charged Tuesday with tampering with food and disorderly conduct.
"As soon as we found out what happened, we automatically – we fired him right away," said Kennedy's Pub manager Marybeth Ball. "For someone to be able to do that -- it's unbelievable, unbelievable."
Police said this past Sunday night, a patron sent a meal back to be further cooked. Another pub employee claimed Stagg spat in the food before sending it back out.
The employee called police, and Stagg was arrested.
Stagg was at his Great Meadows, New Jersey home when CBS 2 came to talk to him on Tuesday. CBS 2 did speak with Stagg's father, who had harsh words about the charges against his son.
"It's a bunch of (expletive)," Stagg's father said.
Stagg is no stranger to police. He served more than eight years in prison for robbing and beating a gas station attendant in Hackettstown, New Jersey.
Pub manager Ball said Stagg will never work another day in her kitchen, ever.
"We're doing the best we can. He's gone," Stagg said. "We're getting all new professional people in there, and it's going to be good."
Pub customer Kelly Conover does not doubt that. She said she is and always will be a regular at Kennedy's.
"I would hate to get such a bad rap for one incident that happened in the back of the house," Conover said.
As to whether a customer should have health concerns if a worker were to spit in his or her food, CBS 2's Dr. Max Gomez said it depends.
"You probably would not get sick from somebody spitting in your food unless that individual actually has certain diseases," Gomez said. "Hepatitis is very transmissible that way. So are some of the viruses that cause those stomach bugs and stomach flus that go through cruise ships, for example."
The New Jersey Health Department did issue food safety violations against Kennedy's Pub, including not having state-required training in food management and food handling.
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