Foothills Area
Feb. 28, 1:05 p.m.
An elderly man going through marriage troubles made an emotional scene in an upscale shopping center by spitting chewed-up bread at a sushi counter, a Pima County Sheriff's Department report stated.
Sheriff's deputies arrived at AJ's Fine Foods at the La Encantada mall, 2905 E. Skyline Dr., to apprehend someone described as an older man in an unbuttoned shirt. An employee at the store's sushi counter said he'd approached the sushi area, looking irate and disheveled, holding a loaf of bread he'd apparently just purchased. She said he took a big bite straight from the loaf and chewed it ostentatiously for a while, then extracted the gob of food from his mouth and hurled it at the counter—luckily not near any customers.
But he then allegedly walked around the counter to where people were eating, chomped another bite of his loaf, and again took the food from his mouth to throw it, this time frightening the clientele at the counter, who fled so quickly that deputies couldn't locate them for questioning. The sushi waitress didn't mention (and perhaps didn't know) whether this chewed-up chunk of bread had struck anyone.
She said in between tossing the masticated bread, the man had thrown money at the sushi counter, deposited some "personal items" (which the report never identified) in her tip jar, and left the area.
Security easily apprehended him, though, and by the time of deputy arrival, he was contrite. He admitted to everything of which he'd been accused, saying he was in "an emotionally charged state" because "he had recently broken up with his wife and they were going through counseling and it was not going well."
He mentioned he'd also wanted to purchase salmon, but his wife wouldn't let him.
After he signed a citation for disorderly conduct, a deputy agreed to drive him to his home nearby.
