A manager at a Washington state Arby’s fast-food restaurant has been accused of urinating into a milkshake mix that might have been served to dozens of people.
Police in Vancouver, located just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, said they uncovered video footage of the 29-year-old man peeing into a bag of milkshake mix as they were executing a search warrant on his phone as a part of a child pornography investigation, The Columbian newspaper reported.
Last Wednesday, the manager made one court appearance on child porn allegations and another on Friday for a new allegation of second-degree assault with sexual motivation, after police said they found the 16-second video of him urinating in a bag of milkshake mix.
The video’s metadata showed it was recorded on Oct. 30 at an Arby’s in Vancouver’s Mill Plain neighborhood, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court.
The manager confessed to investigators that he urinated in the milkshake mix bag at least twice, but it was said he was “almost sure” he threw the bag out. He said he was working alone in the restaurant that night and that he did it for sexual gratification.
He told detectives that if he did not throw the bag away, it would have been added to the other mix by the next shift and served to customers, police said.
Court records said that another manager at that Arby’s location told detectives the restaurant sold at least one ice cream float and about 30 to 40 milkshakes that day.
In an email to The Columbian, Vancouver Police Sgt. Julie Ballou said investigators had no evidence that Arby’s or its franchise owner was aware of the manager’s “abhorrent actions.”
According to Clark County Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick, there is no significant health risk in consuming a drink contaminated with urined.
On Friday, a judge raised the man’s mail from $5,000 to $40,000. He is scheduled to be arraigned May 25.
