News

Ex-NJ chef gets jail time for putting pubic, chest hairs in officer’s sandwich

Published January 23, 2011

How much time in the slammer does one deserve for putting pubic and chest hairs in a police officer’s breakfast sandwich?

At least 15 days and two years of probation, according to one Superior Court judge in Mount Holly.

Ryan Burke, a former cook at a Marlton restaurant, earned that sentence last week after pleading guilty to charges he doctored an Evesham officer’s turkey, egg and cheese bagel sandwich with a few choice morsels.

The 27-year-old will serve his jail time on weekends, according to police.

Burke was a line cook at Good Foods to Go last February when he put the body hair in the sandwich of an officer who had stopped by the restaurant along Merchants Way, police said.

It wasn’t the first time Burke and the officer had crossed paths; a year earlier, the officer stopped Burke for a traffic violation.

Police said at the time of his arrest, Burke confessed to defiling the sandwich and said he did so because of ill will toward the officer.
How much time in the slammer does one deserve for putting pubic and chest hairs in a police officer’s breakfast sandwich?

As the for the partially consumed sandwich itself, police said they confiscated it and sent the hairs to the state police lab for analysis.

The hairs were ultimately determined to be a match to a DNA swab taken from Burke. While Burke, who was immediately fired from restaurant, told a reporter the charges were “ridiculous” after his arrest, he ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and retaliation for a past official action, police said.

Reached at his home on Tuesday, Burke declined comment.

He was sentenced Friday by Judge Charles Delehey