Woman Bites The Bullet At Costco

(05-05) 17:43 PDT IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- Costco workers checked the merchandise at its food court and found nothing out of the ordinary after a woman claimed she bit into a bullet while eating a hot dog, the company's chief executive officer said Wednesday.

Police interviewed workers and opened all of the approximately 25 remaining hot dog packages after Olivia Chanes, 31, reported the incident, CEO Jim Sinegal said.

"We checked everything thoroughly," Sinegal said by phone from Costco's corporate office near Seattle. "Obviously, it's regrettable. ... The question is when could something like this happen."

Chanes told police she was eating the hot dog Sunday afternoon at the store in Irvine, about 40 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, when she bit into something hard and found what officers determined was a live 9 mm round.

Chanes, of Mission Viejo, later went to the hospital complaining of stomach pains and X-rays found what appeared to be another bullet in her stomach, The Orange County Register reported. Doctors told her the metal round would eventually pass out of her system, the newspaper said.

The company CEO said he was not aware of any legal claim filed by Chanes. Police and the Orange County Health Department are investigating the incident.

The Hebrew National hot dogs are carefully prepared, go through a screening process and pass through a metal detector before they leave the factory -- making it extremely unlikely the bullets entered before distribution, Sinegal said.

"This is such an extraordinary thing," he said. "It's difficult to understand how this could have happened."