Missouri Man Charged After Allegedly Coughing Toward Customers and Writing COVID on Store Cooler

(CUBA, Missouri) — An eastern Missouri man has been charged with making a terrorist threat after he allegedly coughed toward customers and wrote COVID on a cooler at a Dollar Tree store.

John Swaller of Cuba was charged Tuesday and was being held on $25,000 bail in the Crawford County jail.

An employee of the store called police because the 33-year-old man was intentionally coughing toward customers and had breathed on a cooler before writing COVID on the inside of the cooler.

The store was closed and sanitized. Cuba is about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Swaller’s father told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch his son does not have COVID-19. Police still used protective gear to transport Swaller to jail.

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Contributor: Associated Press