Man Facing Charges for Alleged Crime ‘Spray’ and Other Face-Palm Moments: 2012 in Review

Editor's Note: As the year winds down, West Des Moines Patch is looking back at some of the stories that made you talk, cry, laugh or just scratch your head. Today, we offer this from March 31 and links to six other great face-palm moments from 2012.

Here's a little something that may help you appreciate your uncomfortable work station.

A Farm Bureau Financial Services employee was allegedly caught on video urinating on female coworkers’ chairs, and now West Des Moines police are considering second-degree criminal mischief charges against him.

Police Officer Curtis Russell met with several Farm Bureau employees Monday, including Lauri Strottman, a corporate vice president, who said employees had been complaining about stains on their chairs since October. Farm Bureau had surveillance cameras installed in February to determine who was behind it.

At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, the suspect – a 59-year-old Des Moines man – was allegedly caught on tape as he urinated on several chairs, causing about $4,500 damage, Russell wrote in a report on file at the West Des Moines Police Department.

Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Have West Des Moines news delivered to your inbox every morning by signing up for our newsletter.

Strottman said the now-fired employee worked in the information-technology department and had access to the employee database, including workers’ photos, and “would pick out attractive females,” according to Russell’s report.

Then, during off-hours, the suspect would come into work and urinate on their chairs, Strottman told police.

She said Farm Bureau terminated the man’s employment Monday, and he left the premises without incident. According to the report, the suspect admitted to Strottman that “I was doing inappropriate things I shouldn’t be doing.”

Strottman told police she would provide them with a list of the women whose chairs had been soiled. Police interviewed some of the man’s coworkers, and they said the suspect has never talked to them and did not make threatening remarks when he was leaving the Farm Bureau campus after being fired.

Other stories that made you smack your forehead in 2012:

• Alleged West Des Moines Flasher Used Flashlight to Illuminate the Goods
• Camera Trap Snares West Des Moines Man Allegedly Leaving Bizarre Trinkets for Neighbor
• Woman Tells Police Being a Republican Should Keep Her Out of Jail
• He Forgot Her Birthday; She Wound Up in Jail
• West Des Moines School Officials Aren’t Saying Much About Nude Home Movies
• Cops Pull Gun on Speeder – Guess Who Stepped Out of the Car?