Man Is Charged in Threat to Ralphs
A Venice man was charged Thursday with trying to extort $180,000 from the Ralphs supermarket chain by threatening to plant contaminated food products on store shelves.
David Ian Dickinson, a 43-year-old British national, was taken into custody by FBI agents without incident Wednesday and immediately confessed to the plot, according to U.S. Atty. Debra W. Yang.
“No one should be afraid to shop at Ralphs or any other retailer,” Yang said. “The evidence indicates that this was merely an extortion attempt. This threat has been eliminated.”
To persuade Ralphs executives that he was serious, Yang said, Dickinson sent a package to company headquarters in Compton that held a jar of Gerber carrots containing glass shards; a container of Gerber orange juice mixed with hydraulic fluid; and a container of Similac infant formula and a jar of horseradish sauce, both laced with boric acid.
Dickinson allegedly demanded payment of the ransom through an elaborate scheme that involved the issuance of 9,000 identical ATM debit cards to Ralphs customers in West Los Angeles, San Diego and San Ramon, Calif.
At the same time, officials said, Dickinson directed Ralphs to place a classified ad for a tuba in the Los Angeles Recycler containing a personal identification number that would enable him to use one of the ATM cards to access the $180,000.
The first break in the case came from an examination of the package with the contaminated items. It had been mailed in late February from a post office in Venice by a person using $1 stamps.
Examining post office videotapes, investigators spotted a white man -- wearing sunglasses, a yellow jacket and a gray cap -- buying $20 worth of $1 stamps about the time the package was sent.
Subsequent letters to Ralphs’ headquarters and to the offices of the supermarket chain’s parent company, Kroger Foods, in Cincinnati were also mailed with $1 stamps.
In keeping with the extortionist’s demand, Ralphs opened the bank account, took out the ad in the March 25 issue of the Recycler and began distributing the ATM cards to customers. Federal officials said the customers were told only that the cards might be good for some unspecified reward.
On March 26, authorities said, a stakeout team at a Ralphs store in West Los Angeles observed a man on a bicycle who resembled the person captured on surveillance video at the Venice post office. He purchased a sports drink and received one of the ATM cards. The customer was subsequently identified as Dickinson, according to the FBI.
Yang said Dickinson was kept under constant surveillance over the next month while investigators gathered enough evidence to obtain an arrest warrant.
He was arrested before he could tap the bank account and as he was preparing to return to England, federal officials said.
Federal officials assured the public Thursday that no contaminated food was planted in any Ralphs markets.
“We have no evidence, no knowledge and no belief that there are any tainted foods on the shelf at any Ralphs,” Yang said at a news conference, where she was joined by James M. Sheehan, chief of the criminal division in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, and Daniel L. Henson, special agent in charge of the Food and Drug Administration’s criminal investigations unit in Southern California.
Dickinson made his first court appearance Thursday afternoon before a federal magistrate judge who ordered him held without bail as a flight risk and a danger to the community. He was charged with extortion, which carries a maximum 20-year prison term, and tampering with consumer products, which carries a five-year maximum term.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said Dickinson was unemployed and had overstayed his visitor’s visa to the United States.
