ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993                   TAG: 9310270155
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WILLIAMSPORT, PA.                                LENGTH: Short

MAN GETS 1-YEAR TERM FOR NEEDLE-IN-CAN HOAX

A man who falsely reported a hypodermic needle in a can of Diet Pepsi was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison.

Christopher J. Burnette, 25, was the first person charged after dozens of bogus tampering reports around the nation last summer.

He pleaded guilty to telling an emergency room nurse that a needle he found in the can hit his tongue. He made a similar report to the local Pepsi distributor and later showed the can and syringe to the manager of a supermarket where he bought a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi.

Burnette later admitted the syringe came from the trash of his mother-in-law. - Associated Press 


 by CNB