The Curious Incident of the Frog Head in the Diet Coke

We get all kinds of unsolicited story ideas. Heck, we'd run out of words if scandal-loving folks such as yourselves didn't keep us supplied with a steady stream of tips. So when we got an email from one Mario Lopez, who claimed he'd found a frog head in a bottle of Diet Coke, we definitely gave him a call back. The Shepherd resident says he found the offending object in a bottle he bought last week at work. "It looks like a frog head in it," he says. "I haven't opened it. It's still sealed. And it's like an inch long, still looks like it has the spine connected to it. Like a diamond shape. Like a frog head. You can see its eyes, not open, but closed."

Coca-Cola spokesman David Sords says the company often receives spurious calls and it's highly unlikely that a frog's head could wind up in a bottle, but the company is investigating the matter.

"I'm not going to send it to them," says Lopez, "because I know I won't hear nothing about it."

To make matters worse, Lopez says he tried to buy a Diet Dr. Pepper today and the machine gave him another Diet Coke. "Well, I don't have the money to buy anything else," he says, "so I took a drink of that and it's making me awfully sick, and I don't know if it's the Coke or if it's just my mind, but it smells bad and I've been throwing up."

Lopez claims he missed two days of work because he was so disgusted, but he's been in contact with a couple of lawyers who don't think he has much of a case. "I want to get compensated for it," he says, "and not just my dollar back — pay for my days off."

We'll have more once we actually see the evidence. Lopez has promised to email us a photo of the bottle tomorrow. He wants to be sure to document the frog head. Plus he's thinking about selling the item on eBay. — Keith Plocek