California roommate arrested after surveillance video allegedly captures him spraying couple's food in gas mask

A 42-year-old California man was arrested last week after his roommates said they caught him on camera wearing a gas mask and spraying an unknown substance on their food, kitchen appliances, and pantry supplies.

Timothy Bradbury was arrested by the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station on Tuesday, February 24, on charges of willful poisoning of food, drink, medicine, or water with the intent to cause injury. The arrest came after the couple he lived with, Billy and David Sonhopper, reviewed surveillance footage that they say showed Bradbury systematically contaminating their kitchen.

The video reportedly shows Bradbury in a blue hoodie and a gas mask spraying the kitchen with a blue bottle. Billy Sonhopper described the scope of the alleged contamination in an interview with ABC7:

"He was spraying stuff all over our groceries – our fruit, our vegetables, our coffee pot that we use every morning and our whole pantry full of our chips and cereal, all of our canned goods and spices. Everything. He sprayed it all over everything."

A trip to the ER raised the alarm

The Sonhoppers said their suspicions were first raised during a recent emergency room visit. Doctors told the couple that blood work suggested possible poisoning. That alarming result prompted them to check the security cameras their landlord had installed in the home. Fox News reported.

What they found confirmed their worst fears. David Sonhopper described the moment:

"On the video we found that, besides all the other things that he's done in the year that we've lived here, that he was spraying something. We weren't sure if it was rat poison, wasp spray."

The specific substance Bradbury allegedly used has not been publicly identified. The couple's account suggests they had been living with the effects for some time before the footage gave them proof.

A year of alleged torment

The food contamination may not have been an isolated incident. The Sonhoppers allege that Bradbury also tried to set the house on fire and cut up the couple's clothing over the course of the year they shared the residence. David Sonhopper painted a picture of sustained misery:

"It's been hell living with him the past year. It's been horrible."

He added that Billy Sonhopper's existing health issues made the situation even more dire: "With her health issues, we were extremely concerned. And we're just tired. We've been living with so much stress."

Family members reportedly informed deputies that Bradbury "suffers from a mental health disability," though no further details were provided.

A tense arrest

When police officers arrived at the home on February 24, Bradbury refused to exit. Deputies recruited the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Mental Evaluation Team to help detain the suspect. After two hours, Bradbury voluntarily left the house.

Investigators then executed a search warrant and recovered physical evidence, though the nature of that evidence has not been disclosed publicly. Bradbury was formally charged with willful poisoning of food, drink, medicine, or water with the intent to cause injury.

When "housing crisis" meets personal safety

Stories like this sit at the uncomfortable intersection of several issues that Americans, and Californians in particular, navigate daily. Housing costs force people into shared living arrangements they might otherwise avoid. Mental health crises fester without adequate intervention. And when something goes wrong, the people trapped under the same roof often have no easy exit.

None of that excuses what Bradbury is accused of doing. Deliberately poisoning someone's food is not a byproduct of mental illness policy failure. It's an alleged crime, and a deeply disturbing one. But it's worth noting that the Sonhoppers apparently endured a full year of escalating behavior before they had the evidence to act. A year of alleged arson attempts, destroyed clothing, and contaminated meals.

Billy Sonhopper's words carried the weight of exhaustion, not anger:

"We don't want to be in fear anymore. We're tired of it. We just want to be safe."

That's not an unreasonable thing to ask. The question is why it took so long to get there.