Man demands $10,000 from Massy after finding roach in his pelau

An Edinboro man is seeking $10,000 from Massy Stores after he claims that he ate piece of a cockroach that was in a bowl of chicken pelau he bought from the supermarket on Wednesday.

Renald Durham said that around 1 p.m. on October 9, he purchased the pelau from Massy Stores Arnos Vale and sat outside the supermarket to enjoy his lunch.

Durham, a vendor, said he took a forkful of rice and when he bit down on it, he found it was “crunchy”.

Renald Durham

“I hear one my brethren say boy stop and when we look, we see is a cockroach,” he said, while adding that it appeared as if there was more than one of the insects in the food.

Durham took the food back to Massy where he met with members of the supermarket chain’s management team including the General Manager Joanna Justine.

During the meeting, the dreadlocked man asked for EC$2000 in compensation and from documents shown to SEARCHLIGHT it would appear that the supermarket agreed to pay.

But now, Durham has changed his mind about the amount of money he and is now asking the supermarket chain for EC$10,000.

The problem is, in documents shown to SEARCHLIGHT, he signed an agreement to accept the EC$2000 payment.

Incident Report Form signed by Management at MASSY and Durham

A Massy customer/employee incident report form dated October 9, 2018 with the time 1:29 p.m. and bearing the name Renald Durham, age 38, says that he, “purchased a pelau and while eating noticed a roach as he was about to take a bite”.

In a part of the document under “Action taken by Management”, it read, “Customer had a meeting with the GM Mrs Joanna Justine, DM Dellerice Duncan, Mesi Harrington and Shirlene Huggins. He requested an amount of $2000. The customer has been informed that the claim would be sent to the insurance.”

The report also said that the customer did not hand over the food to Massy and Durham signed the document as did the management of Massy.

But according to Durham, at around 3 on Thursday morning he awoke with vomiting and diarrhoea, and later that day, he visited a doctor in the Arnos Vale area. He said he was sent to get a blood test and because of what he is going through he thinks he deserves more money.

He said he is aware that he signed the document accepting $2000, but he is hoping that a lawyer could help him resolve the issue by getting the supermarket to increase the payment.

In a statement from Massy Stores, the company said it received a customer complaint on October 9, 2019 regarding the quality of one of the prepared meals purchased from their deli.

“We have met with the customer and we are in the process of following our policy for addressing such concerns. We are addressing this customer concern with urgency and we have also notified the Ministry of Health, as part of our process. We remain committed to ensuring that all our meals are prepared in compliance with food safety standards, to the satisfaction of our customers,” the statement said.