Vista Woman Reports Discovering Razor Blade in Fast-Food Burger

A Vista woman claims she discovered a single-edged razor blade in a hamburger she bought at the drive-through window of a neighborhood fast food restaurant, authorities said Thursday.

Marina Trujillo told San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies that she only discovered the rusty razor blade tucked between the bun and the patty when she went to remove the pickles from her burger.

“My first response was ‘Oh, My God,’ ” she said. “Then when I looked closer and saw it was rusted, that even scared me more. I kept thinking, ‘What if I didn’t check that burger and ate that thing.’ ”

The incident occurred Tuesday after Trujillo, 37, and her roommate, Constance Frazier, 41, bought two $2 hamburger-french fries specials about 10:30 a.m. at the Burger King restaurant in the 300 block of West Vista Way.

They drove about a mile away and stopped to eat when they made the discovery. The women said the blade was sitting between the meat and the bottom bun.

“She never eats her pickles--she always gives them to me,” Frazier said of Trujillo. “When she opened it up, she just had this stunned look on her face. And I said ‘Let’s take it right back there.’ ”

Both women immediately returned to the restaurant to report the incident to franchise owner Phil Freedman, authorities said.

Sheriff’s Lt. Steven Annibali on Thursday discounted any thought that the tampering could be a Halloween prank. “It happened a few days ago, so it’s not close enough to be any Halloween prank or a candy-tampering type thing,” he said.

“Obviously, it’s an unfortunate incident. We’re not sure how or if it could have happened at the Burger King, or whether it’s something of questionable origin.”

The women told officers that they did not wish to press charges but were only calling the incident to light to protect others, sheriff’s deputies said.

“These are the kinds of burgers that children buy,” Trujillo said. “And that really concerns me. I think they need to find out who did this.”

Michael Evans, a spokesman for Miami-based Burger King Corp., said the company was running its own internal investigation of the incident as well as cooperating with local authorities.

“This is a wholly isolated incident as far as we’re concerned,” he said. “It doesn’t happen very often. I don’t even associate it with Halloween because I don’t anticipate anything that sinister.”

Burger King Manager Luz Valdez said she doesn’t believe the story.

“I’m skeptical about the whole thing,” she said. “The burgers are flame-broiled. They’re sent through the heat and then drop 6 inches into a pan. Then they’re shaken with tongs to get rid of the excessive grease.

“It’s just impossible that it happened here. The blade couldn’t have stayed on the burger. And there’s no rusty blade here. After we use them to scrape the broiler pieces, we throw them away.”

Valdez says she has talked with her staff, who all deny knowledge of the incident.

“I trust my employees, back them 100%,” she said. “And they’ve told me it wasn’t there, so I believe them.”