by Al Greenwood
Staff Writer
An on-campus vending machine spewed out cockroach parts and hot water rather than hot chocolate May 12, said a University of Houston student who paid 50 cents for the bug in a cup.
Senior electrical engineering major Mohamed Wadiwala said he was buying hot chocolate for a friend out of the vending machine, located in Philip Guthrie Hoffman Hall. His friends told him the machines housed bugs, but he did not believe them.
Now, Wadiwala said, he wished he had listened. "Me and my friends always drink coffee from that particular machine. I never checked what's beneath the foam," he said.
Wadiwala said he had always gotten a "perfect 10 vend" from the machines. However, when he saw a cockroach's detached abdomen and head floating in the cup, he was "disgusted. I want to throw up (even) now."
Bugs rarely enter the almost-airtight machines, said David Clarke, a service manager for the Canteen Corp., the company that provides vending-machine service throughout the UH campus. He said the last time he heard of a similar incident was "a couple of years ago."
However, Clarke explained, Houston is notorious for its colossal critters, and out of millions of them, some cockroaches may occasionally find an opening in the machines and crawl in to munch on French vanilla mix, hot chocolate powder and sugar.
Other complaints, Clarke said, come from machines spitting out hot water instead of hot chocolate or coffee. "Sometimes, the hot chocolate will clog up the tubes," he explained.
Wadiwala said he called Sandra Silva, office coordinator for auxiliary services, the same day he received his coffee with a dollop of roach.
When Silva returned his call, Wadiwala said he was told the problem would be taken care of immediately. Silva said she called Canteen about the problem the same day. "After I reported to Canteen, I called the (UH) Physical Plant and found out when they could exterminate." UH Physical Plant employees exterminated the PGH vending room May 14, said Darrell Bunch of grounds and custodial services.
Canteen exterminated the insides of the room's coffee and cold soda machines the same day, Clarke said. The cold machines dispense a cup, ice and a soft drink.
However, Clarke said Canteen did not spray the canned drink or candy vending machines. "We don't have a problem in the other vending machines. In the snack vending machines, everything's sealed up."
Clarke added that although the cold drink machine did not have any infestation problems, Canteen exterminated the inside as a precaution.
Graduate management information systems student Bini Ninan, the intended recipient of the hot chocolate, said she plans to make hot chocolate at home rather than relying on campus vending machines from now on.