FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) – A North Carolina man has been arrested in connection with a food tampering investigation that occurred on June 1.
Fayetteville police said in a news release that surveillance footage revealed 59-year-old Ricky Lee Adami placed what is suspected to be rat poison in the shredded cheese machine at Primo Pizza.
A manager was preparing pizza when he noticed an unknown substance in the cheese. The release said he stopped making pizza to go back and review the surveillance footage to determine who made the shredded cheese.
The manager then called the police. All the contaminated cheese was identified and collected before being served to customers, police said.
“I brought the bucket of cheese from the batch that he cut,” manager Gurol Bicer said. “I fluffed it up like I normally do.”
He said he saw brown pellets mixed in with the cheese. Then he checked five other tubs of cheese, and three of them had the same pellets.
All of it was thrown away.
“Everything he touched, I threw away. All the containers, the parts of the machine, the cheese, of course,” Bicer said.
Some customers don’t think it will impact business.
“I don’t think it’s any reflection on the owners at all. So, I’m here today and I’m going to eat the pizza,” said customer Ferd Irizarry.
Bicer said Adami got in trouble with the owner hours prior to the incident. Bicer believes that may have set Adami off.
Adami has been arrested and charged with distributing food containing noxious/deleterious material. He is currently being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center on a $100,000 secured bond.
