Spinach overboard!

Surely you've heard of the national spinach scare caused by some apparently tainted greens from California that have made more than a hundred people sick with E. coli and killed one elderly woman. But this weekend, KHOU reported on a new local twist in the story: A truck driver was arrested in Fort Bend County for allegedly dumping a load of spinach and pre-packaged salad greens in the San Bernard River. Whereas this would usually just qualify as a weird story, the recent E. coli news gives it a whole new undercurrent that makes it ... well, even weirder.

A passerby spotted the driver, Davinder Singh of California, dumping hundreds of bags of Fresh Express brand greens into the river near Needville on Friday afternoon. Police responded and arrested Singh for illegal disposal of solid waste; they said they believe he was getting rid of his cargo — which was all spoiled — because no one would accept it.

“We are speculating that he was disposing of this product due to the recent recall of spinach and other bagged salads,” said James Baker, Fort Bend Environment Investigator.

They might be right: In Houston, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Randalls, Fiesta, Whole Foods Market and H-E-B pulled bagged spinach off their shelves, and restaurant supply giant Sysco took spinach out of its salads — in fact, according to the Chronicle, it's hard to find spinach anywhere in town these days.

The dumped spinach apparently posed no health threat; Fort Bend County officials disposed of the materials legally, and KTRK reports some of it is being tested for E. coli, just in case.