Crime & Safety

Weird West Des Moines: Man Facing Charges for Alleged Crime 'Spray'

Man fired after "going on" pretty coworkers' chairs -- repeatedly -- faces second-degree criminal mischief charges.

Here's a little something that may help you appreciate your uncomfortable work station.

A Farm Bureau Financial Services employee was allegedly caught on video urinating on female coworkers’ chairs, and now are considering second-degree criminal mischief charges against him.

Police Officer Curtis Russell met with several Farm Bureau employees Monday, including Lauri Strottman, a corporate vice president, who said employees had been complaining about stains on their chairs since October. Farm Bureau had surveillance cameras installed in February to determine who was behind it.

At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, the suspect – a 59-year-old Des Moines man – was allegedly caught on tape as he urinated on several chairs, causing about $4,500 damage, Russell wrote in a report on file at the West Des Moines Police Department.

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Strottman said the now-fired employee worked in the information-technology department and had access to the employee database, including workers’ photos, and “would pick out attractive females,” according to Russell’s report.

Then, during off-hours, the suspect would come into work and urinate on their chairs, Strottman told police.

She said Farm Bureau terminated the man’s employment Monday, and he left the premises without incident. According to the report, the suspect admitted to Strottman that “I was doing inappropriate things I shouldn’t be doing.”

Strottman told police she would provide them with a list of the females whose chairs had been soiled. Police interviewed some of the man’s coworkers, and they said the suspect has never talked to them and did not make threatening remarks when he was leaving the Farm Bureau campus after being fired.

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