'don't eat the ribs Vic. They're poisoned.'

I've seen "Polynesian Town" more times than I can count but I can't figure out why they had Vic Hedges eat the ribs AFTER he poisoned them? That makes absolutely no sense. Of course Vic Hedges was never accused of being a rocket scientist so maybe it just didn't occur to him not to chow down on some - they smelled so good.

Maybe he didn't eat any of them -- maybe he just told Johnny LaRue that they had gone bad and pretended to have eaten some to throw suspicion off of himself so he could grab those gems of Dr. John's and then high-tail it out of Hicksville?