Customer Slashed For Too Many Items in Express Lane

MILWAUKEE (Associated Press) — A supermarket customer was charged Saturday with cutting off part of a woman’s nose after that woman went to an express checkout lane with too many items.

Etharine Pettigrew, 41, was charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety, which carries a maximum sentence of a $10,000 fine and two years in prison.

The victim, 27-year-old Vickie Lemons, was slashed with a pocket knife in a parking lot Wednesday, police Capt. Joseph Purpero said.

She lost about half her nose and had to undergo surgery, said her fiance, James Powell.

A counter clerk whose lane was free motioned to Lemons even though she had more than the 10 items allowed at that cash register.

Source:
Southeast Missourian , April 12, 1998, p. 6A.