Law Enforcement agencies in S. Florida are warning officers to be careful when ordering fast food while in uniform after two Hillsborough County, Fla. sheriff’s deputies discovered glass shards in their cheeseburgers Thursday night. When in uniform, officers are high profile targets and should be on the lookout for both traditional and non-traditional threats.
Deputy Stuart O’Shannon, 32, ate part of the burger and started coughing up blood. He was released from the Hospital early Friday. Deputy Daniel Witt, 24, was not injured. The deputies had been in uniform and on their dinner break at a 24-hour McDonald’s, a popular eatery for city and county officers.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, the glass was tucked between a burger patty and a slice of cheese, mixed in with onions that resemble small pieces of glass.
Bob Conigliaro, the vice president of community relations at Caspers, which owns 50 McDonald’s restaurants in Hillsborough County, said it is unclear whether the glass was placed on the burgers at the store or at the food supplier, where the reconstituted onions are packaged. “It’s a concern either way,” he said.
Investigators call the glass-filled burgers “a criminal act” but are not saying whether the deputies were the targets. They questioned all 17 people who were working at the restaurant and gave polygraph tests to three of them. No arrests had been made as of Friday night.
Fast food restaurants have long been officers’ favorites - they are easy, cheap and some are open all night. Some give officers free meals. But that added safety can contribute to another problem.
Several incidents involving tampering of police officers’ food have occurred around the country in recent years. In 2002, a teenager gave rotten meat to a deputy in upstate New York. A 15-year-old in Ohio spit into an officer’s Coca-Cola in 2001. Also that year, three officers sued a Denny’s in Pennsylvania, claiming a cook ejaculated on their food. Other officers have reported finding sink sanitizer in their burgers.
Source: St. Petersburg Times; AP