He told the court he did it to get revenge on the company that fired him.
A man has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for putting razor blades and screws in pizza dough at a number of supermarkets in the US.
Nicholas Mitchell, 39, from Dover, New Hampshire, was arrested in October 2020 after razor blades were found in pizza dough sold at a Hannaford store in Saco, the Portland Press Herald reports.
On Thursday, he was sentenced to four years and nine months behind bars.
Prosecutors said that three customers had purchased the sabotaged product, discovering the razor blades in the dough.
The tampering also occurred at Hannaford stores in Sanford in Maine and Dover in New Hampshire.
Mitchell had been an employee at It’ll Be Pizza, a company based in Scarborough, Maine, which makes several brands of dough, including the Portland Pie Co. dough that was allegedly tampered with.
Court documents show that his life spiralled out of control during the coronavirus pandemic. His girlfriend lost her job at a hair salon and Mitchell was arrested following a domestic disturbance, which resulted in him being homeless and living in his car.
He was then fired from his job at It’ll Be Pizza, with the court hearing that he placed the razor blades in the dough in order to get revenge on the company.
Mitchell told the court that he was sorry and had not wanted to hurt anyone.
After an agreement with prosecutors, he agreed not to appeal a sentence that was no greater than four years and nine months. The maximum penalty for his crime is 10 years in prison.
The judge told him the nature of the crime spread fear in the community.
He has been ordered to pay $230,000 (£173,000) in restitution to Hannaford Supermarkets.
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