DeBARY, Fla. – A restaurant owner in DeBary is sharing video of what appears to show a woman pulling out a piece of her own hair and putting it in her food.
Olexiy Kuzmin, the owner of Genuine Bistro and Lounge at the corner of U.S. 17-92 and Highbanks Road in downtown DeBary, posted the video from inside his restaurant in a Facebook group after he said the woman put the hair in her food and made a fuss.
The waitress who was serving the woman and another woman Thursday afternoon said the pair ordered two sandwiches and two drinks for lunch, which totaled about $20.
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The woman called the waitress over when she was about halfway through her meal to show her that there was a hair in the sandwich, the waitress said.
"She lifted up the last piece of sandwich and said, 'Am I really seeing what I'm seeing here?' And she pulled out a piece of strawberry blond hair," the waitress said. "She was like, 'This is ridiculous.' And she started to cause a fuss, and I tried to quickly remove her out of the restaurant by getting everything taken care of."
The other woman said she also lost her appetite after seeing it in her friend's sandwich.
The waitress apologized and comped both women's food, and only asked them to pay for their drinks.
The waitress said that after the women left the restaurant, she told the owner she didn't feel right about what had just happened, especially because she didn't think anyone in the kitchen had blond hair the color of the one found in the sandwich.
"Something didn't smell right," the waitress said.
She asked the owner to go back and look at the footage from the camera in the restaurant. The owner said he wasn't going to at first because he was just going to let it go, but he eventually went back and watched.
To his surprise, the owner said the video showed the woman reaching behind her head, pulling out a hair and putting it in her food. Even after she appeared to have placed the hair in her sandwich, she continued eating it before letting a restaurant employee know.
The owner said he chose to share the video on social media not only to protect his restaurant's reputation in case the woman wrote a bad review online.
"We do have a reputation (in) Volusia County. We won the 'Taste of West Volusia' (award) four years in a row, and I definitely don't want to see that kind of review online," the owner said.
He also hopes sharing the video will prevent the woman from possibly doing something similar at another local spot.
"This kind of moments make me sad for some people," the owner wrote on Facebook. "Lady putting her own hair in a sandwich and making big drama. Her friend didn't even know that. Who might know this 2 ladies, show this to them. Hope they are not gonna do this again anywhere locally at least."
The server said she hopes the woman will see the video and pay for her food.
"You know, I don't wish her any harm or anything, but it would be nice if she would come in and pay the bill. That would be the decent thing to do," she said.