Spit in Owen County cop’s meal no surprise to Bloomington officers

An Owen County police officer got an extra surprise in his Spencer, Ind. fast-food lunch, and it was not a toy. The officer is pressing charges after finding saliva in his soda. While this is an isolated incident, many local officers find that it is something to be concerned about.\n“We’ve been conscious about it,” IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said, “It’s an issue that police officers and other public officials have been concerned with for years.”\nMinger said that, because of the nature of an officer’s job, many people are bitter against police officers. He said many who give officers a hard time are usually those who have had run-ins with the police previously.\n“I always tell my officers, ‘You’re going to run into people who don’t agree with you because of your job or uniform,’” Minger said. “You just have to deal with it.”\nLocal fast-food workers said they were appalled at the incident.\n“It’s disgusting,” Subway employee Tim Little said. “We would never do something like that.”\nMcDonald’s manager Jeremy Carter admitted that such incidents could happen, but only rarely.\n“I think what happened in Owen County is outrageous,” Carter said, “Of course, you always have a bad seed or two, but we tend to weed them out pretty quickly.”\nDespite the fast-food employees’ claims, many officers still keep the thought of food contamination in the back of their minds while ordering.\n“We think about it all the time,” IUPD Lt. George Robinson said. “It almost always crosses our minds.”\nOfficers take precautions such as never having food delivered to the department, only ordering from trusted people and restaurants and always providing their own meals.\n“I bring my lunch a lot, almost all the time,” IUPD Lt. Laury Flint said. “It gets rid of that problem.”\nWhile similar incidents are rare, they do happen in Bloomington. One case involved an officer whose pizza had been laced with a hallucinogenic drug.\n“That officer had arrested the guy who made his pizza once, and he remembered that,” Robinson said. “So that happened right here, even though it was nearly 30 years ago. And that’s been the last incident.”\nWhile many fast-food employees and city residents find the Owen County incident unexpected, many officers find it upsetting but not uncommon.\n“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised, but extremely disgusted,” Bloomington Police Department Capt. Anthony Pope said. “These officers come to work every day ready to put themselves in harm’s way to help others. It’s very disappointing that someone would treat an officer that way.”