The State - News from Aug. 7, 1986

Two San Mateo County Jail inmates were charged with threatening to poison fresh produce at Lucky supermarkets with strychnine and cyanide, the FBI announced. Todd Burton Sarver, 22, and Henry Williams, 25, were accused of using unauthorized telephone codes from the jail July 17 to phone a Redwood City Lucky store and the firm’s San Leandro headquarters claiming that produce had been tainted. All of the fresh fruit and vegetables were immediately pulled from the shelves at three stores. It was later determined that none of the produce was poisoned. This was the first time that criminal charges resulted from a food-tampering threat in Northern California since a series of tampering incidents began several years ago involving a number of products, according to FBI chief Richard Held.