Spruce Pine Hardee's Working with Authorities after Incident Reported

The Spruce Pine Hardee's has reopened and operated without incident since a temporary, voluntary closure on Tuesday, May 30th.

The Mitchell News Journal spoke with William Clark, vice president of operations for Mountain Star LLC, a franchise of Hardee's Restaurants that runs the Hardees on Highway 19E in Spruce Pine.

Clark said he and his team have cooperated with law enforcement and all health and safety protocols since an incident on Tuesday, May 30 in which a minor, who had eaten a biscuit at the restaurant at 8 a.m. that morning, started hallucinating at football practice later that day. The 14-year-old was taken to Mission Hospital in Asheville. He returned home from the hospital a short time after being admitted.

Later that same day, Spruce Pine Police told Clark that an off-duty employee of the Spruce Pine Hardee's was searched after a traffic stop. The employee, who was on parole, had an illegal substance in his possession.

The employee told police he got the drugs from a pill bottle in an old medicine cabinet in the back of Hardee's, which he claimed was put there by someone else.

After a search Police collected the substance and sent it in for testing. There are no test results available at this time.

Following the temporary closure, the restaurant was disinfected through a deep cleaning that followed the established COVID-19 protocol. All food already on the premises was thrown away.

The employee pulled over with the drugs and the one who placed them in the cabinet were both terminated. Both were on probation.

The Spruce Pine Police Department agreed to work with Hardee's to ensure future hires don't have a criminal record.

Following the deep-cleaning efforts, the local health department approved the measures and gave the restaurant the green light to reopen on the morning of Wednesday, May 31.

The investigation into what caused the child to hallucinate and be hospitalized is ongoing, but police are not sure it had anything to do with Hardee's food. No other guests of Spruce Pine Hardee's have reported issues with food quality since the alleged incident.

Spruce Pine Hardee's is one of 18 restaurants under the Mountain Star LLC franchise umbrella