Shards inside Tropical Smoothie Café drink injures 11-year-old girl

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - An 11-year-old girl was drinking her smoothie when she allegedly found broken glass or hard plastic inside.

"It was a weird feeling," said Cutora Bright. "It was something hard in my mouth and I didn’t know what it was."

FOX 2: "When you looked through the smoothie and saw what was in it, what was your reaction?"

"Like, I ain’t never seen something like this before from this place," she said. "I was shocked."

Cutora Bright and her grandma picked up two smoothies this week, at the Tropical Smoothie Café off Southfield Road in Southfield.

"She told me 'Nana there is something hard in here,'" said Barbara Mosley, her grandmother. "And she showed it to me."

And then, when Cutora got home, it got worse.

"I opened my mouth my tongue started bleeding before I could even put the toothbrush in my mouth, my tongue was bleeding," she said.

Grandma knew she had to go to urgent care to get X-rays and an exam. There was no serious damage done, but this was scary for them.

Photo of Cutora's alleged injury from the smoothie courtesy of Barbara Mosley

"The doctor said had she just drunk out of the cup, this would have been a whole different story," Mosley said.

FOX 2: "We are talking surgery probably?"

"Yeah, absolutely she said for sure," Mosley said.

This is the second time a family has contacted FOX 2, claiming they found glass or hard plastic in their smoothie from the same Tropical Smoothie Café in Southfield.

Back in May, another grandma bought a smoothie for her 3-year-old grandson. He drank it, and this photo given to FOX 2 is allegedly what was in his mouth.

He was taken to Detroit Children’s Hospital of Michigan. It’s unclear the extent of his injuries, their family not speaking publicly about the incident for legal reasons.

"The stories are so similar, it’s crazy," Mosley said.

In both cases, the grandmas report being given the runaround by store managers who said they reviewed security footage which revealed nothing. They even told Barbara Mosley and her granddaughter – it’s impossible this happened.

Tropical Smoothie Café, LLC released a statement, saying:

"The independently owned and operated Tropical Smoothie Cafe franchised location in Southfield, MI, does not use glass of any kind in the cafe. Following the social media post on Aug. 14, 2024, the franchise owner conducted an internal investigation, reviewing all in-store camera footage of smoothie preparation and delivery to the guest, and confirmed there was nothing out of the ordinary in the video."