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Regina fried chicken joint investigating after video shows mouse falling onto customer's shoulder

Regina fried chicken joint investigating after video shows mouse falling onto customer's shoulder

Jony Rahman says his Mary Brown's Chicken & Taters franchise is pest-free and he has the certificate for show for it.

Candice Jahnke was in the Rochdale Boulevard restaurant last Thursday when she caught video of a mouse falling from the ceiling of the business onto another woman.

"I want to clarify that we are clean and we have all the protection in place, but it's an incident, an accident," Rahman told CBC.

"We are very proud of our product and service and whatever incident happened, it's just bad luck for us."

Rahman said he had pest control inspect his restaurant and that the investigation into the incident is ongoing. As of Wednesday, there are no signs of mice or any other rodents or insects in the restaurant and he was given a certificate proving that, he said.

Rahman said he doesn't know how the rodent got into his store. He checked the restaurant's CCTV footage and saw Jahnkhe's video of the mouse as it fell.

Jahnke said it was her children who first noticed the animal on the ceiling, and they watched it drop into the hood of a woman's jacket and it was all on video.

"As soon as I stopped recording, I went to the lady right away, she went to sit down and I said, 'I don't mean to alarm you, but you have a mouse crawling on you,'" Jahnke recalled.

Jahnke said initially the woman was stunned but she slowly took off her jacket and that's when the mouse jumped out of the fabric and scurried toward some nearby garbage cans. Jahnke said restaurant employees appeared to quickly dispatch the rodent.

Jahnke shared the video to Facebook where it generated roughly 1,200 shares. She then removed it from public view because she tired of the constant notifications on her phone.

Supplied by Candice Jahnke
Supplied by Candice Jahnke

A prepared statement from Mary Brown's corporate offices confirmed the store had been checked by pest control professionals and that the restaurant was closed on Wednesday for an inspection and a "deep clean."

"We thank all of our Regina customers for their patience as we ensure that our food safety standards are not compromised and necessary steps are taken to ensure this is an isolated incident," the statement said.

Bryan Eneas/CBC
Bryan Eneas/CBC

"We do everything to make sure [the restaurant] is spotless," Rahman said.

He said there are currently about 25 traps placed around the store in the event another mouse gets inside.

Rahman noted the restaurant is not a standalone building. The ceiling is shared with other businesses. He said he contacted the building's landlord in the hopes they check the other businesses under the same roof.

When contacted, Wascana Property Management, who oversees the building, did not offer comment for this story.

Though the Mary Brown's store does have previous infractions recorded through the government of Saskatchewan's infractions website, none of them were related to pests.