Evidence Grows of Hoaxes in Pepsi Tampering

Investigators in California and across the nation continued to follow up reports that syringes and parts of syringes have been found in Pepsi-Cola cans amid increasing evidence Wednesday that some of the claims are fraudulent.

There have been at least 10 reports of needles found in Pepsi cans in California, none of which have been verified and at least three of which have proved false. A man has been arrested in Pennsylvania for making a false claim.

The latest report came Wednesday in Covina, where police say a woman made a false claim that she found a needle in a can of Diet Pepsi. Pepsi officials say a woman who made a complaint in San Diego called back to admit that she was making the whole thing up and police in Davis say a woman admitted making a false complaint.

Complaints in San Jose, Hayward, Fresno, Bakersfield, West Hollywood and Brea are under investigation, as are similar reports in at least 19 other states across the nation.

Dr. David A. Kessler, commissioner of the federal Food and Drug Administration, emphasized Wednesday that the agency will check out every complaint received, but he warned that making false reports is a federal crime with severe penalties, including a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

FDA officials said they believe many of the claims are by copycats following in the wake of the initial complaint in Washington state. They said false claims frequently follow product-tampering reports, particularly after cases that receive widespread publicity.

Spokesmen for PepsiCo Inc. say it is all but impossible for any of the syringes to have gotten into the cans during the manufacturing process.

“I can’t give you a 100% guarantee, but I would assure you it is 99.99% assured that nothing is happening in . . . the plants,” PepsiCo’s North American division president and chief executive, Craig Weatherup, said Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show. “It’s literally, physically impossible” for cans to be tampered with in the plants.

Weatherup said that although the cans involved in the claims were produced in different plants over several months, during which several hundred million cans were produced, the complaints came in during a 48-hour period, “immediately following the news in Seattle.”

In production, the soda cans are turned upside down, blasted with hot air and water and then flipped, filled and sealed, according to Pepsi’s Philadelphia plant manager, Charles Congdon. He said it takes 0.9 of a second to fill and seal each can.

“We think it’s the safest packaging ever,” said Jeff Nedelman, spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America.

Nonetheless, individual supermarkets in at least three states have pulled Pepsi products from their shelves.

In an effort to head off a growing public relations crisis, PepsiCo executives have been making dozens of appearances on broadcast talk shows and news programs, offering assurances that their production and canning methods are safe.

Meanwhile, several of the tampering claims have begun unraveling.

In Covina, a woman’s report that she had found a needle and a two-inch piece of broken plastic syringe in a Diet Crystal Pepsi can turned out to be false, police said.

Covina Police Detective Frank Schmid said Maria Martinez told officers she bought one can of the soda at Super K Foods on Citrus Avenue, brought it home and was pouring it over ice when the plastic syringe and needle tumbled out.

Her story did not seem credible, the detective said, because by her account she had bypassed several nearby food and liquor stores, traveling two miles to buy a warm can of soda. Even so, police ordered Crystal Pepsi cans removed from the store’s shelves.

After federal investigators interviewed the woman Tuesday, they told Covina police that she had admitted making up the story. Schmid said the FDA told investigators criminal prosecution against Martinez will be sought.

Police in Davis said Wednesday that 25-year-old Leilani Rose, an unemployed single mother, had called a local television station Tuesday night to say she had found needle fragments in a Diet Pepsi bought at a local store.

“After her appearance on television, we contacted her,” Davis Police Sgt. Nick Concolino said Wednesday. “We told her she’d probably be talking to the FBI and the FDA. She got a little pale there. We had a little chat.”

Concolino said that a few minutes later, after police determined that the metal fragments in the can were from a sewing needle, Rose admitted the whole thing was phony. “She was just looking for a little local publicity,” he said.

Concolino said the case was turned over to the FBI, the FDA and the Yolo County district attorney’s office for possible prosecution.

Pepsi spokesman Jeff Brown said the San Diego case is being treated as a hoax. He said a woman called a Pepsi bottling plant in San Diego on Tuesday to say that her cousin had found a syringe inside a can of Diet Pepsi purchased at a San Diego store.

The same woman called back Wednesday and admitted that she had lied, Brown said. He declined to reveal the woman’s name or motive. He said the case has been turned over to the FDA for investigation and possible prosecution.

The man arrested in Pennsylvania, Christopher J. Burnette, 25, of Williamsport, was arraigned Wednesday in federal court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The FDA said Burnette had given agents a sworn statement concerning his involvement but did not disclose the contents of his statement.

The Associated Press reported that a federal agent, in an affidavit, said Burnette took a hypodermic needle from the trash of an insulin-dependent relative and brought it to a hospital Sunday. He told hospital employees he found the needle in a can of Diet Pepsi, the affidavit said.

“If this is proven fraudulent, the Pepsi-Cola Co. will pursue this person to the full extent of the law, and that means jail and a fine,” Brown said.

The report in Brea was made Monday night by Judith Ann Barackman, 51, of Anaheim, who said she found a syringe in a 12-ounce can of regular Pepsi she bought at a Lucky store in the 2500 block of East Imperial Highway.

Contacted at her home, Barackman maintained Wednesday night that she did not put the syringe in the can. “I was horrified by what I saw,” she said.

Her husband, Doug, said the couple has no plans to sue PepsiCo. “My main concern was that she didn’t have any toxic substance in her or any AIDS virus.” he said. “It was not to get rich off of Pepsi-Cola or Lucky stores or to get publicity. We wanted to make sure no kid would swallow it or get stuck by it.”

In West Hollywood, sheriff’s deputies continued to investigate a report by James Russell, 30, who said he found a syringe in a can of Diet Pepsi purchased at a 7-Eleven on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Diana Faz of Bakersfield and Synthia Smith of San Jose reported finding needles in Pepsi cans, officials said. Details about two cases in Fresno and one in Hayward were not immediately available.

In perhaps the best-known product-contamination case, seven Chicago-area people died in 1982 after taking cyanide-laced Extra Strength Tylenol. No one was ever charged in the deaths. Tylenol’s manufacturer, McNeil Consumer Products, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, settled with the victims’ families for an undisclosed amount.

Several people were prosecuted for making false claims about Tylenol contamination in the months that followed the deaths in Chicago.

In 1986, two people were killed in Washington state after taking Extra Strength Excedrin laced with cyanide. The wife of one of the victims was convicted in the case.

Times staff writers Marlene Cimons in Washington, Marla Cone in Orange County and Tony Perry in San Diego contributed to this story.

* DAMAGE CONTROL: Analysts say Pepsi has done a superb job so far in handling the image crisis. D1