Basic Legal Advice

Since it is becoming quite common nowadays, I suggest you do not follow this man's example should you find a finger in your food:

To a dessert shop customer, the severed fingertip found in a pint of frozen custard could be worth big dollars in a potential lawsuit. To the shop worker who lost it, the value is far more than monetary.

But Clarence Stowers still has the digit, refusing to return the evidence so it could be reattached. And now it's too late for doctors to do anything for 23-year-old Brandon Fizer.

"I'm not saying who has it, but somebody has it," Stowers said this week in a telephone interview, refusing to let on where the fingertip is now.

Soon after Stowers found the finger in a mouthful of chocolate soft-serve he bought Sunday at Kohl's Frozen Custard in Wilmington, he put it in his freezer at home, taking it out only occasionally to show to television cameras.

He refused to give it to the shop's owner, and refused to give it to a doctor who was treating Fizer, who accidentally stuck his hand in a mixing machine and had his right index finger lopped off at the first knuckle.

Medical experts say an attempt to reattach a severed finger can generally be made within six hours.

But according to the shop's management, Stowers wouldn't give it back when he was in the store 30 minutes after the accident.

"The general manager attempted to retrieve it and rush it to the hospital," reads a statement posted Thursday on Kohl's Web site. "Unfortunately, the customer refused to give it to her and declared that he would be calling the TV stations and an attorney as he exited the store."

Officials at Cape Fear Hospital said their efforts to retrieve the finger also failed.

Dr. James Larson, director of emergency medicine for UNC Hospitals, who was not involved in the case, said once Stowers took the finger home and froze it, it was too late to even try for reattachment.

"You can't freeze it. It kills the cells," Larson said

Okay, the customer is a first class prick.

If he thought he had a BIG MONEY case, well think again.

Not only does the poor employee have a work comp claim, but thanks to Mr. Stowers action he has lost the use of his finger permanently (though depending on the law in that State the existence of one may complicate the other).

Which do you think a jury would find worth more, the grossed out customer, or the guy who lost his finger because Mr. Stowers KNOWINGLY ran off with it and refused to allow the man to have medical treatment?

If you answered the poor employee your are correct.

So, Mr. Stowers, I do believe you have managed to fuck yourself and this employee with your greed.