Iowa Woman Finds Dead Turtle in Coffee

Marjorie Morris just wanted to pour coffee into a canister but what she found in the package of freeze-dried coffee left her a little shell-shocked.

Morris, 77, of Ainsworth, found a dead baby turtle in the 2-pound package of Folgers coffee she had been using.

"I thought it was a toy at first", said Morris. She had been making coffee from the same package for a month before she made the discovery.

"It's a responsibility of the company to check their shipments closer," she said. "It could be much more serious".

Morris said she didn't plan to take action against Folgers but said a customer service representative for the company dismissed the find, explaining that because many Folgers plants are based in New Orleans the turtle might have ended up in the coffee as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Sussane Dussing, a spokeswoman for the company that owns the Folgers brand, said it's too early to say how the turtle ended up in the coffee. She said she wasn't aware of other similar incidents and that Morris' discovery would be investigated.

Morris, who has kept the turtle, said she would continue to drink coffee, but that she is now a more mindful consumer.

Things could have been worse, she said. "It could've been a snake".

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