An Ohio couple made sugar cookies with laxatives in them and distributed them to striking school employees in the Claymont School District in Ohio’s Tuscarawas County, police said.
Authorities say that Bo Cosens, 29, and Rachel Sharrock, 25, were irritated that supporters of the striking workers would honk their horns while driving by the couple’s home in Uhrichsville, Ohio.
The couple allegedly shared videos on Facebook of them griping about the strikers, including one that featured them mixing laxative pills into sugar cookies. They also disclosed on Facebook that the cookies were brought to striking workers, but authorities say the cookies were not eaten by any striking employees.
After an anonymous tipster notified police about the videos, Cosens and Sharrock were arrested.
“You don’t know what kind of reaction somebody is going to have and it’s a crime to tamper with food that you’re giving to somebody,” Uhrichsville Police Chief Vince Beal told Fox 8 in Cleveland. “They should have called the police department with their concerns about the noise and we could have addressed it at that time in a proper way.”
“We are a very close community and it’s sad to me that somebody would be that angry about something like this, that they try to hurt somebody,” said striking school secretary Shannon Tarbert. “And one of our kids could have eaten those cookies and that’s what’s scary.”
Cosens and Sharrock, who are in Tuscarawas County Jail on a $1 million bond each, have been charged with contaminating a substance for human consumption. Cosens is also charged with aggravated menacing for intimidating comments directed at the striking employees.
