Lakeland (WTFF) – A Florida man was sentenced to 7 years in prison for putting plumber’s lye in the “Yum Yum Sauce” at a restaurant he cooked at.
Plumber’s lye is basically pure Sodium Hydroxide, also known as Caustic soda. It has no odor, and it can kill you in a couple hours if ingested. Products like drain cleaners contain this ingredient. It’s in the same WHMIS class as Chlorine: Class E. It’s also a main ingredient in the manufacturing of meth, making it not so classy.
Our story begins with 54-year-old Margarito Padilla working as a chef at a Hibachi Express, somewhere in the middle of Florida. Lakeland, to be exact.
Padilla lives in a hotel along East Memorial Boulevard and describes himself as a “transient.” He’s at work again, angry about the “unfair working conditions.” Oh but he’ll show them…
Later that day:
His boss Zhong Kun Jiang was doing some routine inspections of the walk-in refrigerator when he saw noticed something strange about the Yum Yum Sauce… it just didn’t look right. This is a customer favorite, and is very popular, so even a little shade off would cause alarm.
He dipped his finger in and lifted the sauce to his mouth. Instantly his mouth began to burn like something was cutting at his tongue and mouth, reports The Ledger.
Jiang rounded up the employees and said he’s calling the cops. Florida Man begged him not to. This caused Jiang’s suspicion of Padilla to heighten.
Cops reviewed surveillance video of Florida Man kneeling before the lye container. He stood up and there was a big bulge in his pocket that wasn’t there before. Then he walked over to where the sauce was, and suddenly the bulge was gone. Anyone who knows how good Yum Yum Sauce is knows that bulges only increase and never decrease around it, it’s just that delicious.
It was later reported by ABC Action News that he took a deal with the prosecutors and pleaded no contest to introducing a chemical into a food or drink.
