A supermarket in Pennsylvania, USA was forced to throw away $35,000 worth of food after a woman coughed over it in a bizarre coronavirus prank.
Gerrity’s Supermarket in Luzerne County said the woman coughed over the store’s fresh produce, as well as a section of their bakery, meat case and other groceries, meaning employees had no choice but to throw everything out and clean the shelves.
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The prank comes at a time where shoppers are concerned about dwindling store supplies as people stock up on groceries amid the COVID-19 health crisis.
The supermarket co-owner said he had ‘little doubt’ that the woman was doing it as a ‘very twisted prank’ but decided to throw out the affected food and disinfect the shelves over concerns for the health of the other customers.
‘While there is little doubt this woman was doing it as a very twisted prank, we will not take any chances with the health and well-being of our customers,’ co-owner Joe Fasula said.
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‘We had no choice but to throw out all product she came in contact with. Working closely with the Hanover Township health inspector, we identified every area that she was in, we disposed of the product and thoroughly cleaned and disinfected everything.’
According to Mr Fasula, the woman is known by police to be a ‘chronic problem’ to the community.
The incident has since been passed to the District Attorney’s Office, who are planning to lay charges against the woman in question.
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Police will also test her for coronavirus, although Mr Fasula does not believe she has the disease.
‘The only silver lining to this travesty is that it gave us the unfortunate opportunity to test our protocols and demonstrate how seriously we take your safety. At one point, we had over 15 employees involved in the disposal and clean up,’ the supermarket owner added.
It is not the first time supermarkets have been troubled by sick coronavirus pranksters. A Missouri man was filmed licking bottles on a grocery store shelf earlier this week.
The revolting clip saw the man saying, ‘who’s scared of coronavirus?’, before running his tongue along the shelf.
