Editor’s Note: This post has been updated with a statement (below) from Dart Container.
A 44-year-old factory worker at a container manufacturing plant has been sentenced to five years in prison after he put shards of glass into foam cups manufactured for fast-food restaurants.
In 2016, Michigan-based received complaints from restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio after they found pieces of glass in their cups. After receiving the complaints, the plant pulled the products and found seven additional boxes that contained Styrofoam cups with broken glass. The company reached out to authorities about possible product tampering.
At the time, Waylon Horton was working on the Styrofoam drinking cups production lines at a Dart plant in Horse Cave, Kentucky. On two separate occasions, he put pieces of broken glass into Styrofoam cups that were then shipped to fast food restaurants.
On July 13, 2018. Horton pleaded guilty to tampering with consumer products. This week a judge sentenced Horton to 60 months imprisonment followed by 2 years of supervised release.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Russell M. Coleman said, “Mr. Horton did real harm, placing both families and a major local employer at risk. And for that, federal prison time is just punishment.”
IEN reached out to Dart Container, but they did not return our requests for comment.
Update: In a statement to IEN, Frank Liesman, Dart Container‘s Vice President of Government Affairs/Environment and General Counsel said:
“We are pleased that justice has been served and believe Mr. Horton’s sentence was appropriate. We thank the FBI and US Attorney's’ Office for prosecuting this case so we can put this isolated incident behind us.
“The safety of Dart’s customers and employees is our highest priority, and our monitoring equipment, traceability systems and rigorous employee training lets us continue to provide our customers with safe, high-quality food and beverage packaging.”
