San Jose police are alerting residents of a man who has admitted to crushing up aspirin tablets and putting them in baby food at two local stores.Police officers went to City Team Ministries, a shelter for the needy after receiving a call from a 29-year-old man who said he "did a bad thing."
David Conklin allegedly told officers that about two weeks ago he crushed between seven and eight tablets of aspirin and put them in a jar of oatmeal apple flavored Gerber baby food in the Longs Drugs store.
Officers went to the store and found a jar that had been tampered with and had white powder inside, police removed the jar.
However, Conklin allegedly told officers he also crushed between five and six aspirin tablets about a week ago and put them in baby food at another store. Conklin told investigators it was a Walgreens store that was near a Target store and several Hispanic markets.
Police have not determined which Walgreens store it was or confirmed that it is definitely a Walgreens store where the incident occurred.
Aug. 30 UPDATE -- David Conklin 29, a bum has been charged in California with leaving two jars of laced with aspirin on shelves of San Jose drugstores. He was arrested at City Team Ministries.
Conklin identified one store where he said he had left a jar of Gerber's oatmeal baby food and gave directions to another store. Police found jars of baby food that appeared to have been tampered with at both stores.
San Jose police found two jars of baby food that had been tampered with, one at a CVS drugstore, the second at a Walgreen's store
So, David Conklin, the 29-year-old transient from Santa Clara — was being held on suspicion of possible poisoning, a felony.
What remains unclear how many jars of food may be affected, police said.
CVS spokesman Michael DeAngelis released a statement Saturday saying the company was cooperating with police. "As a matter of precaution, we have removed baby food products from the shelves of our San Jose stores," DeAngelis said, "and we are inspecting these products. To date we have not found any additional tampered products."
The store manager at Walgreen's declined to comment.
Anyone who believes they may have found contaminated baby food may call 911 or the San Jose police at 408-277-8900.
