The Trader Joe’s in Portland, Ore., where Julee O’Neil says she purchased orange juice that allegedly contained a severed human fingertip (Google Maps).
An Oregon resident experienced a shocking incident when she unknowingly consumed a severed human fingertip while drinking orange juice purchased from Trader Joe’s. Initially mistaking it for a large pulp fragment, the woman later realized the truth, leading to a lawsuit.
Julee O’Neil has launched a legal action in Multnomah County Circuit Court, seeking $10,000 in damages along with legal expenses from the Trader Joe’s Company.
According to documents reviewed by Law&Crime, the lawsuit claims that in June 2025, O’Neil ingested the severed fingertip, which was attached to a piece of a rubber glove, after buying organic orange juice from a Trader Joe’s location in Portland’s Hollywood district at 4121 Northeast Halsey Street.
O’Neil recounts purchasing a 52-ounce container of the store’s brand of orange juice with pulp, taking a drink, and immediately feeling the urge to gag. The complaint notes that she had consumed nearly the entire bottle before making the discovery.
The legal filing describes how O’Neil, while finishing the juice, felt a substantial piece of pulp in her mouth. She later realized she had “inadvertently swallowed or ingested” a human fingertip that was embedded in the “end of a rubber glove.”
Throughout, O’Neil had been “periodically drinking” from the juice container until it was nearly empty, unaware of the fingertip inside.
“O’Neil was gagging and felt nauseated and had a burning sensation in her mouth,” the complaint states. “She was and is concerned that the human hand that was in the tip of the glove was also severed and was part of the pulp.”
O’Neil says she went to an urgent care clinic after swallowing the fingertip “to seek medical attention.”
O’Neil sent a written notice asking for a settlement from Trader Joe’s, but the grocery giant “failed, refused or neglected” to pay it, according to the complaint. The company did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment Wednesday.
O’Neil’s lawyer, Anthony Furniss, also did not respond to requests for comment.
