A Miami mother of six says her family lost its appetite this morning when her daughter discovered her McDonald's pancakes were full of insect parts -- and a store manager refused to file a formal complaint.
Upon inspecting the rest of her children's food, Irene Cruz says, she found insect parts on nearly every plate.
But Cruz says when she returned to the Bird Road West McDonald's at 14699 SW 42nd Street, an assistant manager dismissed what appear to be bug bodies as oil particles or lamp residue that had fallen into the food.
"'It's really nothing'," Cruz said assistant manager Ofelia Guerra told her before eventually -- and angrily -- refunding the family's money, according to Cruz.
Cruz, who took pictures of the bug-ridden food, says the incident began when she and her husband drove away from the restaurant and the children began eating their food in the car.
Their nine-year-old daughter first noticed the problem when she held up a fork full of pancakes and screamed, "There's a piece of cockroach in my food!"
"There were tentacles, body parts, wings," Cruz said, "My daughter is completely traumatized thinking she might have eaten parts of it."
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After gathering up all the food, the Cruzes returned to the restaurant, where, they say, Guerra not only denied the bugs but also refused to file a complaint and refused to put the family in touch with her superiors.
Guerra did offer the family fresh plates of food, Cruz said, but no one was interested.
"This place needs to be inspected," she said. "Something has got to be done."
When attempting to reach Guerra for comment, NBCMIami was told she had gone for the day and the store's manager would be available on Sunday.
According to the Division of Hotels and Restaurants' online records, the Bird Road West McDonald's was not citied for insect avtivity in its last five health inspections dating back to October 2009.
