A US police officer claims to have found a giant tampon in his Starbucks frappuccino in a "disgusting assault" on law enforcement - but the internet is calling foul, claiming the photo has been faked.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin was first to share the photo of the giant "tampon" being pulled out of a Starbucks cup on his Twitter page.
"Sources tell me an off duty [Los Angeles Police Department] officer allegedly found a tampon halfway thru [sic] his Frappuccino at a Starbucks in Diamond Bar on Friday," Melugin's tweet read.
According to Melugin, the plainclothes police officer believes his drink was spiked with the sanitary item as he used his police credit union debit card.
The claim comes in the wake of protests across the world against police brutality, following the death of US man George Floyd at the hands of officers.
According to the New York Post, the LAPD union called the tampon incident a "disgusting assault".
"[This was] carried out by someone with hatred in their heart and who lacks human decency. We hope they are publicly exposed, fired, arrested, and prosecuted for their cowardly and repugnant actions."
But the internet is calling foul, saying that there's no way the matted furball like object in the photo provided to Melugin was a tampon, and doubting that a barista would be able to slip it unnoticed into a coffee anyway.
"[I don't know] about other baristas but 1. In no f**king way do I know wtf a "police credit union" debit card looks like, [and] 2. In no f**king way do baristas have time to casually have tampons on hand during the 30 seconds it takes to make a frappuccino," wrote Dario Martinez on Twitter, in a tweet that's racked up almost 5000 likes.
"I've worked retail.....done thousands of transactions...and never ever did I look at someone's debit/credit card because they swipe it themselves all the time. And if he wasn't in uniform how would anyone know he was a cop???" wrote Jordan Smith.
Hundreds of other tweets and comments echo the sentiments.
New York Post reports Los Angles Sheriffs were reviewing surveillance footage from the store.
The Starbucks in question is reportedly based inside a Target department store. In an update on Melugin's Twitter, he says a Target spokesperson has viewed the surveillance footage and has "not found any suspicious behaviour."
