Family: Rat Baked Into 96-Year-Old's Birthday Cake

It wasn't such a happy birthday for Joseph Vallenti
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 23, 2014 3:17 PM CST
Rat baked into 96-year-old's birthday cake, says his family
A rat, but clearly not one that has been baked into a cake.   (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

It's tough to think of a less appetizing way to celebrate one's 96th birthday. Joseph Vallenti's request for his big day was a slice of his favorite German apple cake, made by King Kullen supermarket. What Vallenti's family recalls the Commack, NY, man saying after taking one bite of the dessert on Thursday: "Something isn't right." Indeed. His niece's boyfriend decided to inspect the uncut portion of the cake—and Neil Gold says he found the remnants of a rat inside. WABC reports that Gold initially thought it was a ribbon of black mold. Then "I saw ... something sticking out," he says. He claims that after flipping the cake over, what he found was a 5-inch tail, still attached to part of the rodent's rear.

The New York Post reports that Vallenti developed diarrhea and stomach cramping after tasting it. King Kullen says it has had no similar rodent issues related to its bakery items in its more than 30 years, and a rep told WCBS 880 yesterday that it has "taken immediate precautionary measures, including removing the cakes and conducting thorough inspections. The bakery department in question ... passed a Department of Agriculture inspection just this month. We are working hard to find out what happened." (More bad news on the rat-front: giant ones could one day rule the Earth, say scientists.)

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