Working in retail is not easy. Not only do you have to deal with difficult customers, you are sometimes forced to work with people that may not necessarily like you.
33-year-old Matsa Beliashvili had been working at a department store for a while and never had bad blood with any of her colleagues, so you can imagine her shock when she found out that she was being poisoned at work.
Last September, the Hudson's Bay employee noticed that her water formed bubbles whenever she went to fill her bottle up, but she didn't give it much thought. However, in the months that followed she started experiencing a slew of symptoms, including nausea, skin problems, and headaches.
Some days Beliashvili would be so sick that she would take time off work.
"It was hell what I went through," she told CBC Toronto.
It wasn't until earlier this month that Beliashvili finally suspected that her water was being tampered with. Even after replacing her bottle, every time she drank from the new container, she would get a whiff of an unusual odor.
Convinced that her health issues are connected to whatever is going on with her water bottle, Beliashvili became suspicious of foul play. On January 19, she decided to leave her bottle in the open before heading home.
Security footage later revealed that Beliashvili's suspicions were right: she was being poisoned by a co-worker.
"They actually caught her in action on camera, spraying Lysol in my water bottle," the Estée Lauder counter business development manager said.
Beliashvili's 28-year-old colleague has since been charged with one count "of administering a noxious substance with intent to cause bodily harm and one count of mischief to interfere with property."
She has already appeared in court, and is booked for another hearing on February 27.
"We had to work on a daily basis together, five days a week," said Beliashvili, who claimed she had a "normal relationship" with the accused. "It's really hard to believe and it's very heartbreaking. I'm really heartbroken."
As for her job, Beliashvili isn't sure she'll return to the same location. The mother of one is slowly recovering from it all, but she's still quite traumatized.
She is having a hard time wrapping her head around how "someone would be full of hate to this extent." She adds that "it's shocking," but nonetheless she's "glad that it's over."
[H/T: CBC Toronto]
