Collegian Facing Prison For Visine Prank

FEBRUARY 10--Inspired by a scene from the movie “Wedding Crashers,” a Wisconsin college student repeatedly placed Visine eye drops in a water bottle used by her roommate, who was sickened by the tainted liquid, police charge.

Luciana Reichel, 22, was charged last month with a felony count of placing foreign objects in edibles. Reichel, pictured at right, is scheduled for an initial Circuit Court appearance on March 7.

According to a criminal complaint, on “numerous occasions” late last year Reichel placed Visine in a quart-sized water bottle used by Brianna Charapata, her 20-year-old roommate at a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh dorm. As a result of ingesting the tainted water, Charapata told cops, “she began feeling nauseated, suffered from diarrhea, loss of appetite and was otherwise very tired for no apparent reason.”

Charapata, who said that her doctor was unable to explain the cause of her symptoms, recalled having to leave an October 18 marketing exam when she suddenly became ill.

Reichel’s Visine scheme ended after she told another student about the prank, and that classmate, Laura Gallas, informed Charapata. Gallas told police that Reichel laughed when describing the Visine stunt “because the eye drops…had been making [Charapata] sick.” After seeing this, Gallas added, Reichel said she “decided to add more to her water bottle a few days later and the same results happened.”

When confronted by cops, Reichel reportedly confessed to the Visine stunt, claiming “she got the idea from watching the movie ‘The Wedding Crashers’ where an actor in the movie put eye drops in someone’s drink and it made that person sick.” In the 2005 comedy, actor Owen Wilson’s character places eye drops in the wine of a rival, played by Bradley Cooper, who becomes violently ill.

If convicted of the tampering charge, Reichel, once a star swimmer on the university’s swim team, faces a maximum of 3-1/2 years in prison. (3 pages)