ON THE MENU: GREEN BEAN SERPENTINE SURPRISE
Part of snake found in bag of frozen green beans 
By MATT JOHNSON | Vernon County Broadcaster | Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010 12:00 am


[img_r]http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/lacrossetribune.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/3/b0/190/3b01900c-3890-11df-b1f3-001cc4c03286.preview-300.jpg?_dc=1269577801[/img_r]VIROQUA - Cindy Guist was helping her mother, Lillian Geary, prepare meals for the week Monday when she poured frozen green beans from a bag into a bowl - and one "bean" didn't look right.

In fact, had these been fresh from the garden, it likely would have slithered in the bowl.

It was a section of garter snake, the same diameter as the beans and mechanically cut to about an inch in length like the rest of the bag's contents.

The beans had been bought at a major chain store and packaged by the Bells, Tenn.-based Pictsweet Company.

A "grossed out" Guist searched the entire bag but found no other parts among the beans.

"Where did the rest of the snake go?" she wondered.

Well, a family in Houston, Texas, might have found the head last month.
According to a Fox News report, Ernestine Jamison was preparing Pictsweet frozen cut green beans in February when she noticed something unusual.

"When I saw it was a snake's head, I just threw it down and called my kids and said, I got a snake's head in the green beans,'" Jamison said.

"Everybody said, Oh Lord, you've got a snake head in the green beans!'"
Sarah Jamison, 15, grabbed her camera and took video and pictures of their uninvited dinner guest.

"I saw big eyes with a mouth open and a tongue coming out," Sarah said. "It looked like it was ready to attack."

Media worldwide picked up the story of the snake's head in the green beans.

Geary and Guist weren't as dramatic about their find. Still, the snake already has taken its toll.

"I don't think I'll be eating green beans anytime soon," Guist said as she showed the snake section. "It just sort of makes your skin crawl."

Guist said they took the beans and snake piece Thursday back to the store, which contacted Pictsweet. Pictsweet then called Geary and they are discussing the matter, she said.

A Pictsweet vice president did not return a telephone message left Thursday.

After a hard day's work on his Crystal Beach home, Everett Johnston just wanted a cold beer.
He grabbed a Tecate Light out of his fridge and began to sip. But, Johnston said, something didn't taste quite right. He said his wife looked in the bottle and noticed a rat's head floating inside.
Johnston filed a lawsuit recently in Galveston County against FEMSA Cerveza (CCM), the Mexican maker of Tecate, as well as Heineken, which distributes the beer in the United States, among other defendants. He's citing the severe psychological damage he says he has suffered.
The 59-year-old retired firefighter said Thursday that all he wants is an acknowledgement of his intense suffering how in the moments after drinking the beer two years ago he wondered whether he would live or die.
The first thing came to my mind was it was a rodent that had eaten rat poison, Johnston said.
He remembered a story about a man who drank something contaminated with rat urine and later died.
I can't explain it, he said. That kind of fear was something I had never experienced before.
In a written statement, Heineken said: While we cannot discuss the specifics of these claims due to company policies surrounding active litigation, we stand behind the quality of our products and those we distribute. CCM is a world renowned brewer with the highest standards for safety and quality.
A worker at FEMSA said no one was available to comment Thursday, and a company spokeswoman didn't return an e-mail message.
Johnston said he began vomiting after drinking the beer and went to a hospital where he had X-rays and blood tests. He said he has since saved the contaminated beer in his freezer.
Johnston added that eating out of a can now is traumatizing to him and he has trouble eating when food isn't prepared directly in front of him.
He also said his suffering made him incapable of caring for his elderly father-in-law before his death.
Counselors have told Johnston there's not much more they can do for him, yet he said the pain continues to gnaw at him. He said he'll donate anything he wins in the lawsuit to charity.
Johnston's lawyer, Roy Elizondo III, said neither Heineken nor FEMSA has been responsive to his attempts to resolve the matter out of court.
Some day someone could die from stuff like this, Elizondo said.

Rat head in beer brings lawsuit