A San Antonio Taco Bell customer, enraged that Beefy Crunch Burritos had gone up in price, fired an air gun at an employee and an assault rifle at police officers before barricading himself in a motel room. After a three-hour Mexican-food standoff, a police SWAT team eventually subdued the suspect, Ricardo Jones, 37, by using gas. Officers may have used jalapeño pepper gas.
The suspect is being held in Bexar County jail on $50.000 bail, a sum that would buy over 33,000 Beefy Crunch Burritos. It was later established that the assault weapon, like the pistol, was an air gun. Nevertheless, there were real dangers involved: each Beefy Crunch Burrito contains 510 calories and 20 grams of fat and the suspect ordered seven of them. Perhaps Mr. Jones’ lawyer will use the “Twinkie Defense.”
We initially thought the incident was the result of the commodity speculation that has raised worldwide food prices. Not so. It turns out the shooting rage was caused by low prices, not high ones. Beefy Crunch Burritos were offered at a special introductory price of 99 cents; that is what Mr. Jones expected to pay, not the full price of $1.49.
More: “The Beefy Crunch Burrito incident,” Michelle Mondo, San Antonio Express-News
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: Beefy Crunch Burritos, burritos, Crunchy Burritos, fast food, food prices, Guns, junk food, Mexican food, retail rage, San Antonio, shooting, Taco Bell, Texas, violence
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