Virginia Man Jailed for Mouse in Soup Scam

What is it with people trying to pull scams? Sure, they are out for a quick buck, but don't they realize that when a person tries to sue a company for hundreds of thousands of dollars that the company being sued is going to leave no stone unturned investigating the matter? Ever since some stupid chick spilled hot coffee on herself from a McDonald's drive-thru, people have been coming up with more and more clever ways to try and extort large companies and restaurants. Recently there was a woman that tried to sue Wendy's for finding a piece of human finger in her chili. It turned out that she planted the piece of human finger, which happened to be from one of her husband's buddies, after the three of them hatched a plan.

The latest attempt is a guy and his mother decided they were clever enough to pull such a scam. At least they tried to pull it on one of my least favorite restaurants: The Cracker Barrel.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- A man who tried to extort $500,000 from a Cracker Barrel restaurant by claiming he found a mouse in a bowl of soup was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail.

Ricky Lee Patterson, 23, was also fined $2,500.

A jury in April convicted Patterson of conspiracy to commit extortion. His mother, Carla Patterson, was found guilty as well and received the same sentence in July.

The Pattersons claimed they found the rodent in soup that Carla Patterson ordered at a Newport News restaurant in 2004 during a Mother's Day meal.

Prosecutors brought charges after an examination of the mouse found that it died of a fractured skull, had no soup in its lungs and had not been cooked - all of which suggested the rodent was dropped into the customer's soup after it had died.