Customers at the Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Ky., alerted authorities after they spotted something they probably wish they hadn't: restaurant employees wheeling roadkill back to the kitchen.

Local CBS affiliate WYMT interviewed the witnesses. The roadkill was apparently a deer stuffed into a trash can. "There was actually a blood trail they were mopping up behind the garbage can," customer Katie Hopkins said. "There was like a tail, and like a foot and a leg sticking out of the garbage can, and they wheeled it straight back into the kitchen."

Local health inspector Paul Lawson was called in to investigate. Lawson said the restaurant owners told him they didn't know they were doing anything wrong. "They said they didn't know they weren't allowed to do that. So that makes me concerned that maybe they could have before. They didn't admit to doing it before." The owner said he didn't plan to serve the deer to customers—instead he planned to use it to feed his family.

The restaurant has been temporarily shut down but will be eligible to reopen as soon as it passes another health inspection and proves it has been washed and sanitized.