A Pennsylvania man is facing an assault charge after he allegedly choked a cashier for crushing his chips.
Bradley Bower, 55, is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday for simple assault, a misdemeanor, in connection with the Feb. 2 incident at a grocery store in New Cumberland.
As he and his wife were checking out that day, Bower became displeased with how the cashier was bagging his groceries, according to police documents obtained by The Smoking Gun. At one point, a police affidavit said, Bower asked the cashier to “not throw his groceries around.”
He later told police that the cashier was “smashing” his chips by putting them in the same bag with canned goods.
After Bower paid for the groceries, the affidavit said he asked the cashier, “Do you have a problem with me? Because I have a problem with you.” The store employee thought Bower was making a joke and cheekily replied, “Do you?” police told the York Dispatch.
That set Bower off and he allegedly put his hand around the cashier’s throat and pushed him against a cash register, all while shouting, “You idiot!”
The cashier told police that he pushed Bower back and then other employees stepped in to separate them, according to WPMT TV.
The cashier’s neck was bruised and surveillance video backed up his story, police said.
Fairview Township Police said Bower told them that he was “having a bad day and this issue with the chips just sent him over the edge,” according to the York Daily Record.
On Monday, Bower told the paper that the smashed chips “absolutely wasn’t any part of it,” but provided no further explanation.
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