A woman visited Oklahoma Arby’s for a late night sandwich and claims she got herpes, then police found footage of the manager’s alleged actions

An Oklahoma woman is claiming she contracted herpes after eating a sandwich from Arby’s, following the arrest of a manager who was caught on camera spitting in her food, as detailed by Unilad. Jennica Church stopped at the Arby’s in Broken Bow, Oklahoma after a late night of bartending. She brought the sandwiches home and shared them with her father-in-law and grandmother-in-law. The following morning, her mouth flared up.

A doctor later diagnosed her with herpes. “I love Arby’s, not anymore,” she told 2News Oklahoma. She also recalled that the order had taken longer than expected, adding, “I thought they were mad at me because it was about to close.” Broken Bow police pulled surveillance footage from the restaurant and saw manager Amanda Hendricks spit into the customer’s food.

Hendricks has since been charged with felony poisoning with intent to injure and was arrested on June 21 before being booked into McCurtain County Jail. According to a lawsuit filed against Arby’s by Church and her family, Hendricks was allegedly aware she had an active herpes outbreak at the time she contaminated the food. Food-related complaints at restaurant chains have drawn significant attention recently, including a case at LongHorn Steakhouse where a customer received a completely raw salmon fillet.

The lawsuit and what the family says

The civil lawsuit against the restaurant chain alleges Arby’s allowed Hendricks to work despite her having an active herpes outbreak with visible lesions. Church’s family attorney, Will Blocker, said the restaurant failed to stop the contaminated food from leaving the kitchen. “They let it go all the way out the door and my client now has a communicable disease,” he said.

“That has to be a culture deeper than Arby’s in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Maybe it’s Flynn Restaurant Group and all 300 stores they own. I don’t know, but we are going to find out.” Unilad has reached out to Arby’s for comment. Church’s mother-in-law, Patricia Dollarhite, described the impact on the family. “My son was sitting at my table, eating breakfast and he wanted a kiss, and he could not get one, so you bet I’m angry,” Dollarhite said.

“I see what it’s doing to my grandchildren, my son, my husband. I don’t want to kiss my husband. He ate the food! Because he hasn’t had an outbreak, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have it.” The lawsuit further claims that Church now lives in constant fear of passing the disease to her husband or their children. Oral herpes is a common viral infection that causes cold sores to form on the lips and surrounding skin.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, once a person contracts an oral herpes infection, the virus remains in the body for life, though not everyone experiences frequent outbreaks. Symptoms can include fever, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, sore throat, and painful sores on the gums, tongue, and roof of the mouth.

Oral herpes can also lead to genital herpes if sores from the mouth are transmitted to the genital area.