Police investigate Spring Green lawn care chemical tampering

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Rochester police have launched a criminal investigation into who spiked lawn treatment chemicals at Spring Green's company warehouse, a case of malicious tampering that resulted in damage to some 200 lawns in the metro area.

Capt. Brian Winters says Spring Green sent samples for testing to the Dept. of Agriculture and that results showed the sample had chemical elements consistent with Roundup, a herbicide used to kill grass and weeds.

Spring Green owner Ken Brown filed a complaint with police, suspicious that someone entered the warehouse and spiked Spring Green's chemicals some time between last fall to early spring of this year.

"I'm pleased that police are following up on my report," Brown told the NewsCenter.  "I hope we get to the bottom of it to reach a conclusion to find out who did it and how it happened."

Brown says he has since taken security measures at the warehouse to prevent it from such a thing ever happening again.

The tainted chemicals have caused considerable financial loss for Spring Green, which has been working for weeks with customers trying to re-seed all the lawns that were damaged.  Brown says he sent a follow-up letter  to customers he knows have been impacted.  He says some have told him that their lawns have responded to Spring Green's efforts to re-seed and repair the damage, but work continues on others.

Back in early June, when KTTC broke the story, Brown told reporter Chris Conte that chemicals that were supposed to promote grass growth had instead done the opposite.

"It will come back, the problem is it's not instantaneous."

Please read the rest of this story at KTTC.