Boxed Turtle

Jersey City, New Jersey, November 14, 2005:

Ron just wanted to pour coffee into a canister. What he found in the package of freeze-dried coffee left him shell-shocked.

Ronatarian Party founder and leader Ron found a dead baby turtle in the 2-pound package of Folgers coffee on Sunday.

"I thought it was a toy at first," said Ron. "Then I looked again..."

Ron said he had been making coffee from the same package for a month before he made the discovery.

"It's a responsibility of the goddamn company to check their shipments closer," he said. "It could've been much more serious."

Ron said he doesn't plan to file a lawsuit against Folgers.

He said a customer service representative for the company dismissed the find, explaining that because many Folgers plants are based in New Orleans the turtle might have ended up in the coffee as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Sussane Dussing, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, the company that owns the Folgers brand, said it's too early to say how the turtle ended up in the coffee.

Dussing said she wasn't aware of other similar incidents and that Ron's discovery would be investigated.

Ron, who has kept the turtle and named it Bennett, said he would continue to drink coffee, but that he is now a more mindful consumer.

Things could have been worse, he said.

"It could've been a snake."

Posted by Bittle at November 14, 2005 08:11 AM