Charles Smith, 27, is facing numerous charges, including criminal damage and endangerment.
An individual has been apprehended after a video surfaced on social media depicting a man using insect repellent on fruits and vegetables at a supermarket in Mesa, Arizona, as per the authorities.
In a video posted to “X,” formerly known as Twitter, on Dec. 19, 27-year-old Charles Smith is seen spraying “Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bud and Flea Killer” on bananas, potatoes, lemons, limes and rotisserie chickens at a Walmart in Mesa.
According to the post on “X”, the original video was deleted from social media. 12News found the original posts from what appears to be Smith’s TikTok page which had several videos. Some showed Smith appear to lock people inside of a Goodwill and throw food at people at a mall.
Mesa Police said they notified the store management and said “any produce that may have been affected has been removed from all areas accessible to the public.”
A Walmart spokesperson sent this statement to 12News:
“The health and safety of our customers and associates is always a top priority. We have removed all directly impacted product and have cleaned and sanitized the affected area of the store. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our customers as we work to resolve this issue. We will continue to work closely with law enforcement during their investigation.”
Frequent shoppers at the location like Ramon Soberanes were shocked after watching the video calling the person’s actions “disgusting” and “awful”.
“This is where people shop for their families,” Soberanes said. “It’s very possible that those bananas, a mom could have been grabbing some for her kids.”
According to police, Smith entered the Walmart on Stapley Drive “intending to film pranks for social media” on Dec. 19 around 8:30 p.m., but instead took a can of the bug killer from a shelf without paying for it and sprayed its contents on vegetables, fruit and rotisserie chickens available for sale.
On Smith’s recent stories page, it shows two separate videos of him putting the items that he claims were sprayed with bug killer in a cart and then pushing that cart filled with items into what appears to be a truck. One of the captions claimed he threw away the items, even though the video does not show that.
In court documents, police said Smith returned 10 minutes later and “attempted to collect the items he had sprayed,” much like in his recent videos. However, police said Smith did not throw away said items but rather wheeled them to the back of the store, and it is unknown whether or not Smith was able to collect all of the items he sprayed.
The rest of the products that Walmart removed in total cost $931, court documents state.
“It should be noted that the time between when the defendant sprayed the items to when he placed them in the cart, left plenty of time for customers to take the contaminated items and purchase them,” court documents state.
Smith was identified by both Mesa police — who said they had previous contact with him — and Tempe Police, who have an open case against him. His prior charges include shoplifting, theft of means, false report, according to court documents. The active warrant against Smith in Tempe is for failure to appear.
Police contacted Smith who then turned himself in voluntarily, court documents say.
When interviewed by police, Smith said he “began to see comments online saying how horrible the act was,” which is why he decided to return and collect the items. He also admitted that if the pesticides he sprayed on the produce and food was ingested by someone who bought the items, they could become ill and may have even needed to go to the hospital.
Smith stated that he does these kinds of “pranks” as a “troll” for social media, court documents state. He also told police he can earn between $6 to 10,000 a month for doing acts such as this and posting them to social media.
Smith faces numerous charges, including:
- Introducing poison (a felony charge)
- Criminal damage (misdemeanor charge)
- Endangerment (misdemeanor charge)
- Theft (misdemeanor charge)
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