A recent incident left a woman in New York City feeling “permanently traumatized” after she bit into a chicken wrap that allegedly contained human fingertips.
The legal case, filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, stems from an incident on November 17, 2023. Mary Elizabeth Smith, who is 43 and works as a managing partner for the Corcoran Group, ordered food from Create in Astoria.
Smith asserts that both Create and its parent company, Ditmars Bake LLC, should have been aware that their product posed a risk to the public.
Her attorney, Robert Menna, clarified that while Smith did not ingest the fingertips, she was still disturbed. “She bit into the wrap and, of course, immediately recognized that something was wrong and quickly spat it out,” he explained. “It was a horrifying experience for her.”
Recently, Smith mentioned that she has been preparing more meals at home since the incident and required extensive antiretroviral therapy, due to the potential health risks after her exposure to the amputated fingers.
“This incident has made me extremely cautious about what I eat,” she said, adding that she had frequented Create at least twice weekly prior to this incident.
Forensic tests confirmed that the fingertips indeed belonged to a human. “It took me quite a while to muster the courage to eat chicken again. Honestly, I never imagined something like this could happen,” she shared.
After the incident, Smith visited a walk-in clinic with the recovered fingertips. “I offered to pay $75 just to find out it was something else,” she commented.
The insurance company for the restaurant, Liberty Mutual, has contested the claims, according to Menna. He provided them with photographic evidence of the fingertips and a forensic report that indicated the fingers were those of a woman.
Menna noted that the restaurant claims there were no female employees working on that day, but Smith insists she distinctly remembers seeing women present.
She tries to avoid contemplating where the fingertips might have come from, expressing a hope that such an incident never occurred. “I really hope that didn’t happen,” she confided.
Messages left for the Create staff went unanswered, and the attorney who previously represented Ditmars Bake LLC did not respond to inquiries.
