LARGO, FL -- We found dead roaches and bugs inside Sneaky's Sports Bar and Grill, but inspectors saw so many live ones in June, they shut down the Largo restaurant on Ulmerton Road for a roach infestation.
According to their most recent report, inspectors found over 50 live and dead roaches in more than a dozen places in the kitchen along with rodent droppings.
"Did you have any idea there were these problems?" asked ABC Action News Anchor Wendy Ryan.
"Not to that extent," replied Manager James Cummings.
Cummings has worked for Sneaky's on and off over the last five years but just became the manager a couple weeks ago.
"It looked like you had a pretty bad roach infestation?" Ryan asked.
"We did clean that up," said Cummings.
And inspectors found other health concerns over the last year, documenting 57 critical violations.
In June, they discovered employees thawing potentially hazardous food in an improper manner and raw chicken stored over ready to eat foods, a cross contamination issue. Both could make customers sick.
"We're right on top of that now, " said Cummings.
As we looked around, we did see other issues inspectors might write up as violations.
We saw an old grill and other kitchen equipment stored outside, which can attract rats.
Last year, inspectors ordered a stop sale of 55 ounces of sauce because of temperature abuse in the walk-in cooler. They said employees did not cool down the sauce properly.
They also documented raw chicken stored over beverages and small flying insects in the bar area.
But Cummings says the future of Sneaky's will be much different now.
"We've got a new kitchen manager also. So with the new kitchen manager and me being the new bar manager, we're getting right on top of that," said Cummings.
"So is that why they brought you on board, to kind of clean things up?" asked Ryan.
"I'm really not sure, I'd like to think so but I'm not sure," said Cummings.
