UHRICHSVILLE, Ohio — Laxative-laced cookies landed an Ohio couple in jail. Police say the couple was not happy with striking school employees, so they plotted to make the workers sick and posted video of it on social media. Now they have strikes of their own on their criminal records.
Uhrichsville police showed WEWS where to find the Facebook live video, which investigators say captures Bo Cosens and Rachel Sharrock laughing it up as they crush laxatives into cookie batter. In the video, Cosens says, "We're gong to be humble and we're going to give them laxative cookies." While Sharrock explains their special recipe, "Five milligrams each and it's a gentle laxative. So it's gently--" "It's going to gently work its way through your system," interrupts Cosens.
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Police say the couple lives in a yellow mobile home near the school and became angry at cars honking their horns in support of dozens of non-teaching Claymont School employees, now in their third week of striking. "He said his dog barks every time somebody honks their horn. So he's wasn't able to get any sleep," said Chief Vince Beal.
Police say Cosens and Sharrock baked up the laxative-laced sugar cookies to get even and had someone else deliver them to the picketers last Thursday. On the same day of the delivery, police say someone shared the Facebook videos with the department. The videos not only showed the contaminated cookies being made, but also contained a threat to strikers. "He had made some threats about going down and actually shooting some of the picketers," said Beal.
Police arrested the suspects on several charges including a first-degree felony contaminating a substance for human consumption. The striking workers were also told what was likely hiding in the cookies. Luckily, no one ate any of them.
The picketers say during the three-week strike they have received a lot of support from the community including food deliveries, even dinners. So when the cookies came, they assumed it was nothing more than another goodwill gesture. "A lot of our children attend this school here and our kids like to come and get a snack after school. And one of our kids could have eaten those. That's scary. Because it would have made them sick," said Shannon Talbart, one of the striking employees.
The police chief says the couple may have seen this as a prank, but their bonds are no joke, $1 million. "It's a very serious offense and it cannot be considered a prank," said Beal.
The police chief says he is looking for a lab to test the cookies to confirm laxatives were actually in them.