- Nguyet Le, 63, was arrested around 9pm on May 11 when he was alone in the restaurant preparing for the store’s opening and in the walk-in cooler.
- Lee’s son, who was working in a fast food restaurant, made a terrible discovery
- The mother and grandmother of four worked at Houston RB and was temporarily sent by corporate to New Iberia, Louisiana.
A Louisiana ranch manager who died after falling into a frozen freezer is suing the fast-food restaurant after employees complained about the door being broken..
Nguyet Le, 63, was alone in the restaurant at 9:00 a.m. on May 11 when she got caught in the food cooler while preparing for the store’s opening. Her son, who works at Arby’s, made the horrifying discovery.
New Iberia police said she had blood stains on the doors, which she was trying to escape but ended up falling into a fetal position. A preliminary report from the coroner’s office confirmed the mother of four died of hypothermia.
Paul Scrabank, the attorney representing the family, has called for a formal investigation into the restaurant’s freezer problem. A former employee told him that the latch on the refrigerator had not been working properly since August and that the problem was known and ignored by management.
He says the family is suing in part because their requests to Arby’s went unanswered. The family is seeking more than $1 million in damages.
A former male employee, who did not want to be identified, told KATC News that several work orders were submitted to fix the broken bolt.
He also took pictures of the refrigerator from previous complaints.
‘They knew about it,’ he said. ‘Employees have complained’
It is unclear what the temperature was on the day Le was trapped inside and struggled to survive.
The cooler should be negative 10 degrees Celsius according to the previous employee, but the temperature is lower than that.
‘I believe she went through the freezer door and no one was there to help her,’ he said.
According to the former Arby’s employee, employees used a screwdriver to open and close the walk-in cooler, according to the lawsuit.
The suit further alleges that the employees were in the habit of opening the door with an oil box because they did not want it to be closed all the way.
Le, who worked as general manager with Arby’s in Houston, Skrabanek, was asked by the franchisee’s corporate office to move to New Iberia to help run that location.
After about a month to six weeks, she was almost done with her temporary assignment.
DailyMail.com has contacted Arby for comment.
Comments