Family says cleaning chemical in Dairy Queen shakes made them sick

THORNTON, Colo. - A trip to Dairy Queen for dessert turned dangerous Thursday night.

The family visited the DQ in Thornton. They say they tasted something strange in their ice cream treat, and then they got sick. FOX31 Denver received emails from others who say the same thing happened to them.

"He tasted something funny but thought it was off his hand and he said, 'Mom, this shake tastes disgusting.'"

Riley and his mom, Lisa Chase went to the drive-through at the Dairy Queen where they ordered vanilla shakes. After a few sips, the boy's stomach was burning.

"I took a drink of it and tasted something very 'chemically,' and then my mouth and throat started burning," Riley told his mom.

She whipped her vehicle around and went back to the store where she says she had a bad encounter with management.

"He said we don't give money back. 'I can't reimburse you for it,' and I said, 'No, I'm going to take this to the hospital with my son and you can pay for that and he said, 'do whatever you got to do.'"

Later she says a district manager called and confessed someone put a cleaning chemical into the vanilla syrup.

"I asked him how much, how did this happen?" He said, "Someone had a cleaning bottle and they didn't clean it out and they just put the vanilla in it"

By phone the store manager told FOX31 Denver that what happened was a "bad deal." Lisa Chase thinks it's much worse.

"I had him sleep with me last night and just not knowing what it was I didn't know what to do," she says tearfully.

DQ management was very apologetic Thursday. They were looking into what recourse the customers have with the restaurant chain's insurance company.

The Colorado Health Department was investigating the case.

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