People love seafood, but when you go to Red Lobster, one of the items that is going to be on the menu is lobster. After all, it’s in the name of the restaurant! Of course, that news is good for anyone who is hungry for lobster but is not very good for the lobster.
That is, of course, unless you are an extremely rare lobster and somebody discovers you in the tank at the Red Lobster restaurant. That is exactly what happened in Manassas, Virginia when a calico lobster was discovered in the tank.
Not only are these lobsters rare, but they are also about one in 30 million, so finding one at a restaurant is more than a one in a million chance. They are beautiful, with yellow and orange coloring on their dark shell.
According to Food and Wine, restaurant employees recognized that they were looking at something interesting, so they did the right thing. They named it “Freckles” and looked into giving the lobster a more permanent home rather than putting it on a plate.
After contacting the Akron Zoo, the Virginia Living Museum got involved. Freckles was donated, put under quarantine, and eventually was put in the tank with other rare lobsters.
Although it is rare to find these unusual lobsters in a Red Lobster restaurant, it does happen from time to time. For example, a blue lobster was found in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, just last year.