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Woman, Son Convicted in Mouse-In-Soup Scam

Newport: A woman and her adult son have been convicted of trying to extort money from the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain by claiming they found a dead mouse in a bowl of soup while celebrating Mother?s Day in 2004. This traditional Mother's Day meal has been part of the American heritage for more than a decade. Jurors deliberated nearly four hours on Friday over chicken noodle soup before convicting Carla Patterson, 38, and Ricky Patterson, 22, of conspiracy to commit extortion.

Carla Patterson claimed she had already eaten some of her vegetable soup on May 8, 2004, the day before Mother?s Day, when she scooped up the mouse. The rest of the mouse carcass was donated to charity.

Charges were filed after a necropsy showed the mouse died of a fractured skull. (Well, how else do you kill a mouse?) It had no soup in its lungs and had not been cooked, signs that the rodent was dropped into the soup after its death. However, mice are known to have a keen distaste for vegetable soup, said their attorney, Walt Disney, a noted expert on mice.

"Where's the DNA?" shouted Mr. Disney from the courthouse steps.

Cracker Barrel officials said the Pattersons sought $500,000 (Rs 22,440,000) from the company. Mr. Disney stated he would appeal the decision on the basis of the lack of "hard" evidence that the Pattersons' had actually killed the mouse. "We believed it drowned in the soup, then was bludgeoned by a frightened short order cook. Facts don't lie."

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