Shards in Tropical Smoothie Café drink injure 11-year-old girl
Girl injured after broken glass found in drink at Tropical Smoothie Café
Cutora Bright and her grandmother grabbed two smoothies this week at the Tropical Smoothie Café on Southfield Road in Southfield.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) – An 11-year-old girl was drinking her smoothie when she allegedly found broken glass or hard plastic in it.
“It was a strange feeling,” said Cutora Bright. “I had something hard in my mouth and I didn’t know what it was.”
FOX 2: “When you looked through the smoothie and saw what was in it, what was your reaction?”
“I’ve never seen anything like that from here,” she said. “I was shocked.”
Cutora Bright and her grandmother grabbed two smoothies this week at the Tropical Smoothie Café on Southfield Road in Southfield.
“She told me, ‘Nana, there’s something hard here,'” said Barbara Mosley, her grandmother. “And she showed it to me.”
And then, when Cutora came home, things got worse.
“I opened my mouth and my tongue started bleeding. Before I could even put the toothbrush in my mouth, my tongue was bleeding,” she said.
Grandma knew she had to go to the emergency room for x-rays and an exam. There was no serious damage, but it was scary for her.
Photo of Cutora’s alleged smoothie injury courtesy of Barbara Mosley
“The doctor said if she had just drunk from the cup it would have been a completely different story,” Mosley said.
FOX 2: “We’re probably talking about an operation?”
“Yes, that’s absolutely, that’s what she said,” Mosley said.
This is the second time a family has contacted FOX 2 claiming they found glass or hard plastic in their smoothie from the same Tropical Smoothie Café in Southfield.
In May, another grandma bought a smoothie for her three-year-old grandson. He drank it, and this photo provided to FOX 2 allegedly shows what was in his mouth.
He was taken to Detroit Children’s Hospital of Michigan. The extent of his injuries is unclear, and the family has not spoken publicly about the incident for legal reasons.
“The stories are so similar, it’s crazy,” Mosley said.
In both cases, the grandmothers reported being stalled by store managers who said they had reviewed surveillance footage that turned up nothing. They even told Barbara Mosley and her granddaughter that it was impossible that such a thing could have happened.
Tropical Smoothie Café, LLC released a statement saying:
“The independent Tropical Smoothie Cafe franchise location in Southfield, MI does not use any glass in the cafe. Following the August 14, 2024 social media post, the franchise owner conducted an internal investigation, reviewed all camera footage of the smoothie being prepared and served to the guest, and confirmed that the video did not show anything unusual.”
