Employee Arrested After Customer Returns Cookie With Staples in It : Tampering: A Mrs. Fields Cookies store policy that tracks who bakes the batches led to a 20-year-old Anaheim man. No one was injured from eating the doctored sweets.

A Mrs. Fields Cookies store policy that identifies employees with batches of cookies they bake helped police Saturday to track down a 20-year-old employee suspected of adding staples to a white chocolate cookie sold at the store Friday.

Michael Steven Connors of Anaheim, who had worked at the Mall of Orange store five weeks, was arrested at his home in connection with the incident and on $2,700 worth of outstanding traffic warrants.

Connors became a suspect when a customer returned a cookie to the store about 6 p.m. Friday. The store was closed Friday night and store employees turned over to authorities the remaining stock of 48 cookies and three trays of brownies, some of which had also been sprinkled with staples.

No injuries have been reported and police believe the case is an isolated one. The store was open Saturday.

Debbi Fields, president and chief executive officer of the cookie chain, said it was the first such incident in the chain’s 12-year history.

“I am shocked and concerned that this could happen,” Fields said in a written statement from the company’s headquarters in Utah. “I am especially pleased to know that the police found there has been no one injured.

A spokesman for the company said store policy that requires employees to rotate from sales to baking positions at different times of the workday helped tie the suspect to a batch of cookies made between 3 and 5 p.m. Friday.

“Because all Mrs. Fields cookies are made fresh in several batches throughout the day, there is no doubt the incident was limited to cookies made between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m,” Fields said. “Because of our record-keeping procedures, we know exactly which employee makes each individual batch of our cookies and other products.”

Orange Police Sgt. Ed Falkenstien said Connors could be charged with adding harmful substances to food. Police have not determined the motive behind the tampering.

In her statement, Fields said any customer who purchased a product Friday at the Mall of Orange store and wishes to return it for a refund or replacement could do so.