SHELBYVILLE, Ind. -- The manager of a Shelbyville, Indiana Little Caesar's Pizza, as well as her boyfriend, were arrested this week after accusations of using heroin at work and preparing food with open sores.
An officer with the Shelbyville Police Department met with an anonymous source Monday, who told him the manager of the Little Caesar's at 809 S. Harrison St. comes to work on heroin, buys heroin at work, and uses heroin in the employee bathroom. The source also told police that she has Hepatitis C and open sores on her body as she prepares food for customers.
The officer received another call the next day, saying the manager, Sasha Fletcher, 31, was in the store. When he went to the store, he saw Fletcher's boyfriend, Joshua Parson, 34, behind the counter making a pizza barehanded. Parson is not an employee of the Little Caesar's.
"It's not the normal," said Lt. Michael Turner of the Shelbyville Police Department. "I can speak for Shelbyville that that's not normal for us to go into these restaurants and make these kinds of arrests."
The officer brought them outside to talk and observed they both appeared as if on heroin, according to a news release. Police brought a K-9 to sniff around their parked vehicle. The K-9 indicated there was an odor near the passenger door.
Fletcher and Parson then admitted to police that there were syringes in the vehicle, used for meth and heroin, police say.
"Just the heroin alone, we don't want that kind of stuff around our food, our kids and our families," said Lt. Michael Turner of the Shelbyville Police Department.
Robert Lewis of the Shelby County Health Department said we don't officially know the couple's medical history, but if Fletcher does have Hepatitis C, it wouldn't be transferable through food.
"You would have to have intimate relations with that individual or share the needle they used to get Hepatitis C," Lewis said.
The alleged open sores are another issue, Lewis said. He didn't see any open sores on Fletcher, but said some infections or diseases could be transferred, such as staph or MRSA. The chance of that is very small, he said.
"It is a safe place to eat," Lewis said. "[The public has] nothing to fear. I would go there. I go there on a regular basis. It's close to my home. It's close to my work. ... I talked to that lady about a week ago. My son and I were in there. She had her sleeves on, so she was covered. You wouldn't have known she had any open sores or anything. The public has nothing to worry about on her spreading any disease."
Lewis said he's been with the health department for 30 years, and hasn't seen anything like this.
The Little Caesar's restaurant is currently open. The other employees closed the restaurant and the building was cleaned earlier this week, then re-opened Thursday.
Because of the restaurant's quick response to the situation, the health department did not close it or cite it for any violations.
Both Fletcher and Parson each face charges of possession of a syringe and possession of heroin.
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