- When you thought it couldn’t get worse…
The downward spiral is a fascinating thing. You start with one bad thing and then everything just gets exponentially worse from there.
Take, for example, the recent case of Stephen Sharp, a now ex-manager of an Arby’s restaurant. His story begins horrifyingly enough, though — he’s been arrested for downloading and distributing child pornography.
As the cops were then going through Sharp’s phone, they stumbled across a disturbing video. The silver lining is that it didn’t depict child exploitation.
Instead, it showed Sharp, 29, urinating into a container of milkshake mix. But wait, it gets worse — he claims he has no idea what happened to the mix.
It could be that it got thrown away. But it’s likely that it got served to customers.
Yummy.
Is it yellow because of the banana…?
Suspicions of Depravity
The Digital Evidence Cybercrime Unit (DECU) at the Vancouver Police Department was already investigating Sharp, suspecting him of possessing and distributing child porn. In early May, it appeared that their suspicions were correct.
According to Vancouver PD, someone downloaded child exploitation imagery within a certain Arby’s restaurant in the city. If we’re interpreting this correctly, Sharp downloaded child pornography on the restaurant’s Wi-Fi connection — or at least while he was in the restaurant.
Not a particularly smart move.
On May 10, Vancouver PD contacted Sharp about their suspicions. During the interview, Sharp ended up confessing not only to having a sexual interest in children but also to downloading and dealing in dozens of photos and videos.
Consequently, the DECU acquired a search warrant on Sharp’s digital devices. That included his cell phone and any other computers or devices at his home.
As they went through the devices they stumbled upon a 16-second video depicting a man peeing into a strange container. That rung the alarm bells in the investigators’ minds and they started — probably reluctantly — digging deeper into the video.
They later managed to identify the man in the video as none other than Sharp. They also confirmed that the container was a bag of Arby’s milkshake mix.
‘Almost Sure’
The cops approached Sharp about the contents of the video. During this interview, Sharp confessed again — he had indeed urinated into the milkshake mix.
But why would he do such a thing? Well, in his own words, for “sexual gratification.”
And he hadn’t done it just once. Sharp confessed that he had peed into the milkshake mix bag “at least twice,” according to The Columbian.
After the deed, he threw the bag away — maybe. Sharp told the police that he was “almost sure” that he’d disposed of the milkshake mix.
Almost.
But what if he didn’t? Well, oh boy. Sharp told the police that if the bag was still in the restaurant by the time the next shift came in, they would’ve added it to the milkshake machine.
The metadata of the video showing Sharp urinating into the bag shows it was recorded on October 30, 2021. On that day, the restaurant sold 30-40 milkshakes and one ice cream float.
Were those milkshakes contaminated with sharp’s pee? We don’t know, and we may not be able to know.
Don’t grab your torches and pitchforks and head to your nearest Arby’s, though. According to the police, there’s no evidence that the franchisee or the Arby’s head office knew about Sharp’s… Hobbies.
“The alleged actions of the former franchised employee are abhorrent and unacceptable. We have taken immediate action with the franchise group who terminated the former employee and is fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigation,” an Arby’s spokesperson told Fox LA.
Go Directly to Prison
Sharp’s actions, neither regarding child pornography nor creating a public health hazard, will not go unpunished. Judge David Gregerson raised Sharp’s bail from about $3,900 to nearly $31,200 while he waits for his trial.
The authorities have charged Sharp with four counts of both possession of and dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On top of that, he’s now also accused of second-degree assault with sexual motivation for his pee stunt.
The possession charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years in Canada. Distributing child porn could get Sharp slapped with up to 14 years of jail time for each count.
We didn’t find out exactly what the maximum penalty for peeing in milkshake mix is. But based on what we did find, let’s just say it’s unlikely to get Sharp out of jail any time sooner.