Man accused of pouring bleach on food, ice at many markets
A man who authorities said poured bleach and hydrogen peroxide on food in at least one Safeway store in Sunnyvale and several grocery stores in Southern California has been arrested in Santa Clara County.
David Lohr, 48, faces food tampering charges in Santa Clara County for allegedly pouring hydrogen peroxide onto the heating tray of a rotisserie chicken display in a Safeway in Sunnyvale on Jan. 26. Surveillance video of the grocery store appeared to show Lohr pouring bleach on cartons of eggs in the same store, deputies said.
Authorities have not determined whether the tainted foods were sold to customers or how many grocery stores he went into. But they are urging anyone who felt sick after shopping in a Sunnyvale Safeway store on Jan. 26 to call the sheriff ’s office at 408-808-4500.
Lohr had a federal felony warrant issued by the FBI office in Los Angeles for tampering with and attempting to tamper with consumer products in several grocery stores across Southern California, according to federal authorities. In addition to the federal warrant, Lohr faces similar charges in Orange County and Arizona, FBI officials said.
A transient, Lohr has a Florida driver’s license and investigators believe he used public transportation to move from place to place.
Santa Clara County sheriff ’s deputies arrested Lohr last Wednesday after receiving reports that he had been spreading salt and hydrogen peroxide on a Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority bus on Wednesday morning.
According to court documents, on Dec. 14, surveillance video appears to show Lohr picking up a container of bleach in a grocery store in Manhattan Beach (Los Angeles County), walking to the liquor aisle and pouring bleach into the refrigerated section of beer. Lohr set the bleach bottle between two packs of beer and walked out of the store without buying anything, authorities said.
At a Kroger in Redondo Beach, a woman noticed the odor of bleach coming from a bag of ice that her child had picked up on Dec. 16, according to court documents. When an employee took the bag of ice that the child had been holding against his chest, the employee and the child’s mother noticed his shirt had changed colors from black to brown, as if it had been stained by bleach, investigators said. Investigators reviewed a surveillance video from that day and saw Lohr enter the store, pick up a bottle of bleach and walk to the aisle containing bags of ice, according to court documents.
On Dec. 17, another Los Angeles grocery store had to dispose of nearly 40 bags of ice after they had been contaminated by bleach, a federal complaint said. On surveillance video the same day, Lohr appears to dump bleach into a freezer containing bags of ice, investigators said.