An estimated $3,000 worth of produce was damaged or destroyed this October when a “disgruntled former contractor” allegedly attacked a Harris Teeter (975 Savannah Hwy.) salad bar with a bottle containing a “brown substance” that later proved to be fecal matter. Now that man, Pau Hang, 41, will be arraigned Wednesday on federal charges.
Hang, who was initially arrested on state charges, is being charged on two federal counts:
1) reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or bodily injury, and tampering with consumer products that affected interstate or foreign commerce.
2) intent to cause serious injury to the business of Harris Teeter Supermarket.
According the original incident report, police found the alleged poop-petrator standing outside of the store after speaking with the manager.
“The offender admitted that he knew he was on trespass notice from the business, but stated that the business owed him money and that he was not going to stay away until he was given this money,” reads the incident report.
The store’s manager told officers that the man was spotted in the produce section carrying a plastic bottle filled with “some kind of brown substance.” Hang, a former contract employee with the store who had been charged with trespassing there at least nine times, was seen emptying the contents of the bottle onto all the produce throughout the department, according to the report.
“The complainant said that the substance had a foul odor, similar to that of feces,” the report states.
Hang will appear before Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker in the Federal Courthouse downtown on Wednesday morning.
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