Hate Flyers Show Up in More Grocery Stores : Crime: Racist literature found in Elysian Valley follows a series of incidents in Fountain Valley markets.

At first, Veronica De La Torre thought the paper she found inside her microwave chicken dinner was some sort of recipe. And it was: A recipe for hate.

The Elysian Valley woman was the latest victim of what authorities call the newest trend in racism: hate pamphlets tucked inside a host of grocery store products, from boxes of Cracker Jack to peanut butter to soft drink six-packs sold in grocery stores across Southern California.

Since 1992, more than 800 incidents have been reported of hate messages found inside products sold in stores in Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties--150 in the last year, according to the California Grocers Assn.

“You name the store, you name the product, and they’ve been hit,” said Robert Kennedy, a Long Beach lawyer representing the grocers association. “The slurs are against Jews and blacks and Hispanics. It’s an ongoing problem. The people who buy this stuff are really insulted.

“They don’t know if it’s the manufacturer or store personnel who’s responsible. And they want answers. It’s caused some real misunderstandings.”

In Fountain Valley, five incidents were reported to police from stores and store customers between Aug. 25 and Sept. 1.

“We’ve had two at a Ralphs market and three at an Albertsons,” said Fountain Valley Police Lt. Larry Griswold. “They all involve the same cartoon.”

The caricature has an African American man with his arm around a white woman and the words “Nicole Brown Simpson in training.”

At the bottom of the paper is the message: “What’s the latest abomination that the media is relentlessly promoting in TV . . . Civil rights? Affirmative action? Have we lost the will to live?”

The notes found at the Fountain Valley stores were placed in packages of pizza, Chun’s spicy chicken, and Betty Crocker Fruit by the Foot, Griswold said.

“Obviously there is no targeted group to receive the message,” Griswold said.

A spokeswoman for Lucky Stores said the problem has gone on for at least 2 1/2 years at Lucky and at stores owned by many other chains.

“It’s occurred sporadically,” said Judy Decker, a spokeswoman for American Stores Co., the parent company for Lucky in Dublin, Calif. “Obviously, every time it happens a customer is upset and we are too.”

Grocery association officials believe they know who is responsible for some of the grocery store hate pamphlets. Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued an injunction against Allan Eric Carlson of Glendale, prohibiting him from putting such pamphlets into packages in any of the 1,100 stores in the three-county area that are members of the grocers association.

Don Beaver, president of the association, said it is difficult to punish someone within the law for spreading their views, no matter how repugnant. “These guys . . . know what the laws are and they know how to work just inside the law.”

Beaver said the association approached county, state and federal prosecutors before deciding to file a lawsuit against Carlson.

According to a document filed by the grocers association, Carlson had been observed placing flyers that disparaged Mexican immigrants, African Americans and Jews into food packages.

Referring to one crude flyer introduced in the suit, Carlson said in a document: “I have never distributed anything like this in any store nor have I sent this or anything resembling it to anyone else, ever.”

But Carlson also wrote: “If there are people who have been offended by the [racial] flyers presented here, they need only turn on their TV to find comfort. The problem exists for those who find that repulsive. When that mainstream ‘culture’ makes one sick, and no outlet for that is tolerated, what does one do?”

Police are investigating the wide dissemination of the literature, which they say appears to be inserted in unsealed products. Recently, a number of racist flyers depicting an interracial couple and references to Nicole Brown Simpson were also found in packaged foods at a Burbank market.

Over the last month, four customers of the Vons market on Pass Avenue in Los Angeles have reported finding 4-by-6-inch flyers in various products after they took their groceries home. Other vitriolic flyers have been found in mailboxes in Thousand Oaks and in Lady Lee crackers at a Lucky store in Fountain Valley.

David De La Torre says his wife called him home from work after finding the anti-Latino pamphlet Thursday. “Someone is spreading hate and getting it to the right people,” said the 26-year-old claims adjuster. “I’m a Mexican American, and it bothers me. It’s a violation of my civil rights.”

The pamphlet received by the De La Torre included a number for local radio station KROQ-FM (106.7). Station manager Trip Reeb said the station’s number has been included on a least a dozen racist pamphlets inserted into food products over the last six months.

“We don’t have the remotest idea who it is,” he said. “Not a clue. We’re mystified and disgusted by the whole thing.”

David De La Torre wants an apology. And Evan Zeppos, a spokesman for Johnsonville Foods of Wisconsin, the maker of the microwave chicken dinner in which the flyer was found, is prepared to give him one.

“This is the first time this has ever happened to us,” Zeppos said. “Still, we’re sorry that any of our customers has been exposed to this hateful and disgusting action. We’ll apologize, even though we’re not involved.”

Times staff writer David Reyes contributed to this story