14 News, The Tri-State's News and Weather Leader-Urine trouble: Dare leads to soiled sauce

Urine trouble: Dare leads to soiled sauce

Reporter: Shannon Samson
New Media Producer: Rachel Beavin

Owensboro police charge a Daviess County High School student with misdemeanor criminal mischief and menacing, after he admitted to urinating in a bottle of soy sauce and leaving it on the table of a Chinese restaurant.

Lanmy and Wei Zheng and their relatives were shocked when Owensboro police paid a visit to their New China Buffet restaurant on May 4th.

They were there to confiscate nearly 70 bottles of soy sauce from the tables after receiving a tip that one had been tainted with human urine.

Vicki Li, from the New China Buffet, says, "I think it was a stupid thing that happened. It was gross and it is not our fault."

It was actually the work of a 16-year-old male student from Daviess County High School. Acting on a dare, he took the bottle into the bathroom, emptied half of it and filled the rest with urine.

Owensboro Police Oficer Marian Cosgrove, says that was not the end of it, "Another juvenile he was with drank a teaspoon of it on a dare and then they left it in the restaurant."

That's where the soiled soy sauce stayed for two weeks, until rumors about the incident started circling around Daviess County High. A school resource officer heard them, got a confession out of the student and then notified the health department.

Health officials refused to talk on camera, but said by phone there are no disease-causing agents in urine. Plus, the salt in soy sauce would make it difficult for bacteria to grow.

So far, no one has reported being sick. Li worries they're the ones who will end up suffering the most by losing business,  "Please don't punish us, we do the best we can."

Regular customer, Laura White, seems pretty sympathectic, she says, "I think their regular customers will come back every day just as usual."

The Zhengs want everyone to know there's a new bottle of soy sauce at each table waiting for them.  

Owensboro police say the fellow student who drank a teaspoon of the tainted sauce is a female who earned $8.00 for accepting the dare.