Chinese restaurant caught with roadkill in kitchen, Ky. report says

By: Crimesider Staff, Jacqueline Alemany
Topics: Daily Blotter

The Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Ky. is accused of having roadkill in the kitchen

/ WYMT

(CBS) WILLIAMSBURG, Ky.- The Red Flower Chinese Restaurant was forced to shut down on Thursday after employees were seen dragging roadkill into the kitchen, reports CBS affiliate WYMT.

Make that one from Lane A and one from Lane B.

"We were actually joking about the, you know, the whole Chinese restaurant. You know some rumors that you hear," says Katie Hopkins, a customer of the Red Flower restaurant.

What Hopkins and her friends witnessed next apparently confirmed some of the rumors they had been discussing.

"Two of the workers came in wheeling a garbage can and they had a box sitting on top of it. And hanging out of the garbage can, they were trying to be real quick with it. So that nobody could see it. But there was like a tail, and a foot and leg. Sticking out of the garbage can and they wheeled it straight back into the kitchen," adds Hopkins.

Hopkins, who described the scene that left a trail of blood across the floor as 'very disturbing,' called the health department immediately.

An environmental health inspector, Paul Lawson, reportedly arrived at the Chinese restaurant after the complaint to find a dead deer in the restaurant's kitchen. Lawson, who told WYMT that it was the craziest thing he had ever seen, also said that the owner's son admitted to picking up the deer off the side of I-75 north.

"They said they didn't know that they weren't allowed to. So that makes me concerned. But maybe they could have before. They didn't admit to doing it before," says Lawson.

The Red Flower Chinese Restaurant will not face any fines and will be able to reopen if they pass a secondary health inspection. The restaurant owner alleges that he was going to serve the deer to his family and not to customers.

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by BillyBadAzzz October 3, 2012 10:23 PM EDT

I've never seen a Chinese menu with venison on it, and there is no mistaking the flavor. My grandfather deliberately ran over a rabbit once, and I found it in his frying pan a little later. Big deal...I wouldn't do it, but big deal really!

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by BillyBadAzzz October 3, 2012 10:26 PM EDT: Then again i once found a small vertebrae in my Buddhist delight, so maybe ther is something to the rumors...I had a flaming volcano drink before that so it didn't bother me at the time LOL.


by PourpaixPourpaix October 3, 2012 3:15 PM EDT: Before you all go into hissy fits over this, don'tcha think you should look into the nutritional qualities of road kill? As opposed to genetically engineered domestic animals fed tons of chemicals to improve the farmer's yield, some species of road kill are low in fat/high in protein! Even better, instead of driving to the store and paying a bunch of money, you only have to drive around a little bit to find road kill for free.

Furthermore, don't be stupid about Chinese restaurants. Judging from the tiny pork bones you get in those places, you really think it comes from 14-inch pigs? Be realistic, when was the last time you saw a cat hanging around a Chinese restaurant?; Reply to this comment


by Ifutryitulikeit October 3, 2012 1:28 PM EDT: I think the man is telling the truth that he did not plan to serve the deer meat to customers but he was going to feed his family with it instead. I personally do not want to eat deer meat just because I think deers are just too cute, but some of my families and friends love deer meat. They all said the deer meat tastes a lot better than cow meat if prepared well and I agreed with them. I know this because I have eaten deer meat jerky my sister made and I did not realize that I was cow meat until my sister told me. A lot of Asians love deer meat, and it is better than cow meat; so I didn't think he would want to share the meat with the customers, but the man should have been more careful not to leave blood trail because it would look disgusted to anyone who witnesses it.; Reply to this comment

by fiddlestickawshucks October 2, 2012 1:01 PM EDT

Don't ever eat any Chinese food that you haven't yourself; or unless you can positively identify the entire contents of the dish.

Same goes for Korean food.

My grandmother's neighbor had a Korean family on her block who owned several DOGS.

She would see the owners walking these dogs through the neighborhood.

For some reason she could not initially understand, there were often different dogs being walked at different intervals (usually months).

The it dawned on her that these people were allowing their dogs to continually have new litters of puppies, because they were using them as food.

Just the thought makes me ill.!

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by PourpaixPourpaix October 3, 2012 3:18 PM EDT: Actually, to be a racist, one must at least profess the superiority of their own race, and is usually coupled with an attempt to target an allegedly inferior race with a restriction of rights. Simply commenting on differences of cultural values is not being racist.


by judymar14 October 2, 2012 11:08 AM EDT: OMG, I am turned off Chinese food for a very long time! I feel bad for their restaurants across the country, as others might feel the same, even though this is an isolated incident, I hope! Now, if other Chinese restaurants are inspected by health departments, it will be deemed racist.; Reply to this comment

by byrdh5n1 October 2, 2012 10:56 AM EDT

From the cook's perspective, the dumbest part of this story: dragging the garbage can through the dining area. Don't they have a back door? Venison and bean curd stir fry with garlic and hot peppers.... YUM!!

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by Aki_Tendo October 3, 2012 9:04 AM EDT: Actually, they don't have a back door. The restaurant in question rents a space out of a mall. I worked in that space when I was a teenager when it was leased to Papa John's Pizza. There is no back door, and nowhere to put a back door.