SIMI VALLEY : Nurse’s Aide Reports Finding Blade in Can

A Simi Valley nurse’s aide Thursday reported finding an X-Acto-type knife blade in a can of Von’s soda that she shared with a co-worker, authorities said.

Neither woman was hurt.

Von’s Supermarkets dismissed the incident as an isolated case, but ordered all cans of Von’s Caffeine Free Diet Root Beer with a similar production date pulled from the shelves in its Simi Valley stores, company officials said. That was fewer than a dozen cans in all.

Simi Valley police confiscated the can and the blade, turning them over to the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, which is investigating a rash of tampering reports involving hypodermic needles in cans of Pepsi-Cola.

“We certainly have no reason to believe that it is anything beyond an isolated incident, but we will rely on the government agencies to give us any further information,” Von’s spokeswoman Mary McAboy said.

Alina Hernandez, 23, a nurse’s aide at a Thousand Oaks nursing home for elderly nuns, said she usually drinks soda straight from the can at lunchtime.

But Thursday, she said, she offered to share her root beer, purchased Saturday in the Vons store at 660 Los Angeles Ave., with co-worker Frances Real.

“When I was pouring the last of it in my glass, I heard something,” she said. Hernandez said she used a can opener to remove the lid and spotted the knife blade inside.

The two summoned police, who turned the can over to federal investigators and told her to check the rest of the six-pack of root beer, Hernandez said. Real corroborated Hernandez’s story.

“It’s kind of scary because on Saturday I bought this kind of soda for my children,” said Hernandez, who has daughters age 4 and 5.