By Wayne Laepple
MILTON — The case of the corroding coins continues to confound police, who are baffled as to what caused pennies to melt or how a substance came to be on the rolled change at a Milton bank and a neighboring liquor store.
A teller at Sovereign Bank on Mahoning Street was taken to a hospital Tuesday afternoon after the pennies caused minor chemical burns to the worker’s fingers. An employee at the state liquor store who handled a separate roll of pennies also reported a burning sensation on the fingers.
The tainted pennies were taken to the state police crime lab in Harrisburg Tuesday night and by Thursday investigators still had not determined what caused the pennies to melt.
Todd Ulrich, detective with the Milton Police Department, said Thursday afternoon he had just spoken with the lab, which reported it had been unable to pinpoint what caused the coins to deteriorate and irritate the skin of their handlers.
“There’s no reason to believe there was any criminal act at this time,” Ulrich said.
There were no angry customers, threatening notes or telephone calls to indicate foul play.
Ulrich said the coins were from packets of wrapped pennies, not from loose change accepted from a customer. He said two wrappers of pennies, one from each business, were taken to the Harrisburg lab, and several additional wrappers of pennies, totaling less than $100, were seized from the two businesses, as well from as an adjacent Weis Markets store as a precaution.
Milton police were called to the state liquor store and Sovereign Bank around 1 p.m. Tuesday after one employee at each business noticed a burning sensation on their fingers after handling pennies.
A spokesperson at the Milton Sovereign Bank referred questions about the incident to corporate officials in Philadelphia. A call to the corporate office was not immediately returned.
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