Woman says mice fell on her in bathroom of Pittsburgh-area restaurant

ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. (KDKA) -- A woman says several mice fell on her while she was in the bathroom of a restaurant in Lawrence County.

According to Pennsylvania law, all restaurants and eating establishments must be regularly inspected to make sure they're safe to the public. Often times, health inspectors receive complaints from customers, and in those cases, they may inspect the same restaurant more often. That just happened in Ellwood City.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, says after she ate her meal at Nico Luciano's Italian restaurant, she went into the bathroom. She says while she was sitting on the toilet, a mouse fell on her, then another, then another, and when she left the stall, she took more video of more mice falling into a sink -- about 12 in total, she says. 

She says the food and service at the restaurant were excellent, but she still sent the video around to health agencies.  

The owner acknowledges that it did happen, but says it was a rare occurrence and gave this statement to KDKA-TV: "We have been working with professionals and officials to correct the problem and will continue to work."

The owner also said they were inspected as recently as Wednesday morning and passed, and they were open for business. 

What if you wanted to check the health inspection status of your favorite restaurant? Would you know how? In the state of Pennsylvania, its actually fairly easy.  Just visit the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's website and follow the instructions to do a search.

Pennsylvania guidelines say a restaurant must be inspected at least once a year, or more if there's cause. During those inspections, the state is inspecting two different things: foodborne illness risk factors and good retail practices.