Dollar General janitor pours bleach into co-worker’s Pepsi as revenge, Florida cops say

A Dollar General janitor poured bleach into a can of Pepsi his co-worker was drinking to “get back at” him for being “difficult to work with,” a Florida arrest report says.

Deputies went to the Dollar General in DeLand at around 8:20 p.m. on Oct. 24 after a man reported that he thought his co-worker had contaminated his Pepsi with cleaning supplies because of a grudge, according to the arrest report from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.

The worker told deputies that he’d set his Pepsi down to go to the bathroom. When he came back and took a drink, it tasted like bleach.

He “panicked” and called 911, the report says.

He told deputies that he suspected the janitor had put something in his drink because the two had argued the previous day at work, and he thought the janitor was holding a grudge, according to the report.

Deputies watched surveillance video from the store and saw the janitor go behind the counter and pour bleach in the area of the can, wipe it down with a paper towel and set it back on the counter, according to the report. It also shows him appearing to spit into the can, the report says.

The janitor, who is 48, later told deputies that he had put “cleaning solution around the brim” of his co-worker’s drink to get back at him “for being difficult to work with,” the report says. He told deputies that the co-worker was always “brushing up against him” in the aisles of the store.

The janitor is charged with poisoning of food, water or medicine with intent to kill or injure and destroying or tampering with physical evidence, according to the sheriff’s office.

He remains in the Volusia County jail.

The co-worker declined medical treatment, according to the arrest report.

DeLand is about 40 miles north of Orlando.

This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Dollar General janitor pours bleach into co-worker’s Pepsi as revenge, Florida cops say."