It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to put or place (i) any strychnine, other poisonous compounds or ground glass on any beef or other foodstuffs of any kind, or (ii) any antifreeze that contains ethylene glycol and is not in a closed container, in any public square, street, lane, alley or on any lot in any village, town or city or on any public road, open field, woods or yard in the country. Any person, firm or corporation who violates the provisions of this section shall be liable in damages to the person injured thereby and also shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. This section shall not apply to the poisoning of insects or worms for the purpose of protecting crops or gardens by spraying plants, crops, or trees, to poisons used in rat extermination, or to the accidental release of antifreeze containing ethylene glycol.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-401
Putting poisonous foodstuffs, antifreeze, etc., in certain public places, prohibited
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 44 N.C. App. 659 - State v. Trimble (1980)
Most recently applied in 257 N.C. App. 354 - State v. Rankin (January 2018)
1941, c. 181; 1953, c. 1239; 1993, c. 143, c. 539, s. 270; 1994, Ex
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: North Carolina General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain North Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.