Walgreens Pulls Lipton Tea // Bottles at Store Had Been Tampered With

Walgreens drugstores was pulling bottles of Lipton Ice Tea fromshelves in 300 stores Thursday as Chicago police and the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration investigated suspected tampering of theproduct.

Michael Polzin, a spokesman at Walgreens Deerfield corporateheadquarters, said most affected stores are in the Chicago area.Others are in northern Illinois, northern Indiana and the Milwaukeearea, he said.

All the stores are served by the same bottling plant that servedthe Walgreens store at 641 N. Clark St., where Brandi Geiger, 23, ofthe 1300 block of North Dearborn, told police she purchased a taintedbottle of iced tea Wednesday evening. Police said they found twomore bottles that had been tampered with at that store.Geiger told police that after swallowing a mouthful she guessedthe drink was tainted with paint thinner. She suffered esophagusdistress, police said. She was released after treatment atNorthwestern Memorial Hospital.Reached by phone Thursday at her home, she said, "I'm sorry. Ihave no comment," then hung up.The iced tea is bottled in a joint venture by Pepsi Cola andLipton Tea Co., Polzin said.Malcolm Chester, a vice president of Pepsi Cola General BottlersInc., acting as spokesman for Pepsi and Lipton's, said there were noindications the problem went beyond one store.Chester said it would be premature for any type of a generalrecall at this point. He said Walgreens was the only retailer thathas removed the iced tea from shelves.At the Walgreens where Geiger made her purchase, there was agaping section in the beverage cooler Thursday.Customers informed of the incident were stunned, and leery."Iced tea customers are simply buying other brands," said storemanager John Chang. "I'm glad the girl is OK."Polzin said the iced tea comes in a number of varieties and allvarieties were being removed from shelves by Walgreens as aprecaution. Customers were not being advised to return any bottlesthey purchased, Polzin said.The bottle Geiger drank from contained "a foreign substance,"Polzin said. "We're still trying to determine what the substance isand how it may have gotten in there."He said Lipton bottles have a vacuum seal safety screw cap inwhich "the middle pops when you unscrew the cap."