Woman gets jail time after coughing on store food, claiming she had coronavirus

A woman in Pennsylvania has reportedly been sentenced to jail after officials say she coughed on food at a local supermarket on purpose last year while claiming to have coronavirus, prompting the store to get rid of thousands of dollars in merchandise.

The Associated Press reports that the 37-year-old Margaret Cirko has been sentenced to a year at least after pleading guilty to making bombs threats earlier this year.

The news comes months after Cirko was charged with making terroristic threats last year. Police in Hanover Township said at the time that the woman entered a local Gerrity’s “making verbal threats that she was sick while intentionally coughing and spitting saliva/bile” on food and other merchandise. 

She allegedly continued the behavior in a few more aisles, police said then, before “attempting to steal a 12 pack of beer as she was being ordered to leave the store by employees.”

In addition to being charged with making terrorist threats, she was also charged then with threatening to use a biological agent and making criminal mischief, both of which were felony counts.

According to the AP, Cirko’s attorney claimed the woman was intoxicated during the crime and did not have COVID-19.

While in court this week, Cirko said she wished she “could take it back,” the news agency reports.

A co-owner of the Gerrity’s supermarket chain, Joe Fasula, reportedly said the incident cost the store more than $35,000.