Monday, May 4, 2015

Honesty: Not Always Best Policy

One night a couple of us were sent to a hotel on a complaint of marijuana odor coming from a room. We get a dozen of these calls a week. Typically, we'll just make our presence known as a deterrent to the responsibles, let Narcs know about it, and go on our way.

This night, on a hunch, I asked if we could come in and talk to the three who were staying in the room. They agreed. In plain sight on a coffee table were a bunch of pills, which the genius who let us in readily admitted were morphine that he had been taking, and for which none of the three had a prescription. One arrest.

The lone female was lying on the bed, so I went over to talk to her. When I asked for her ID, she opened her purse to retrieve it and in plain view on top of all the other crap was a bag of weed. Two arrests.

During a search incident to arrest, in which I can look pretty much anywhere within about arm's reach of the arrestee, I checked a backpack that was laying on the bed next to the female. The second male started explaining that it was his, not hers - I'm sure thinking I wouldn't look inside if I didn't think it belonged to the female. He was incorrect.

Inside were 3 gigantic bags of pot they were transporting from Oregon to sell here. Three arrests.

Advice: If you're trafficking dope in my city, don't consent to a search of your stuff.

No comments: