Note to potential drug dealers: Don’t sleep in your vehicle when it is parked on a city street with its doors wide open and your merchandise inside.
Unless you want to get busted, that is.
That was the result for a pair from Pekin, Ill., on Monday afternoon (June 12) in Crystal City.
At about 1:15 p.m., Crystal City Police Capt. Mike Pruneau and Detective Sgt. Billy Reece were patrolling the 100 block of Chestnut and spotted a rented 2016 Toyota Corolla with Colorado plates parked outside a home. A man and a woman were sleeping inside the car with the doors open.
“Apparently the electric had been turned off in their friend’s house,” Pruneau said. “The male had a warrant from Pulaski County, Mo., for felony possession of a controlled substance.”
The man, 24, said he couldn’t give permission for officers to search the vehicle because it wasn’t his and he hadn’t rented it. The man who did rent it, a 19-year-old from Hillsboro, was inside the home and gave officers permission to search, Pruneau said.
“One of the patrolmen found what’s known as Molly, a club drug that mimics ecstasy,” Pruneau said. “They found marijuana packaged for sale, three or four ounces, and ice, or methamphetamine; also, what appeared to be marijuana oil.
“They also had two fake $100 bills in the vehicle.”
The Illinois man was arrested and released to Pulaski County on the prior warrant. New warrants will be sought for drug possession.
The woman, 18, was released after the man “took responsibility for everything,” Pruneau said.
The counterfeit bills were turned over to the U. S. Secret Service.