Story Archive

In the Hot Seat

Andrew Harris was in a hotel hot tub in Mission Valley, Calif., when he got into a friendly conversation with the others relaxing there. He asked the woman and two men why they were there, and one man answered that their “crack lab” had “blown up.” Harris, not catching the joking tone (meth labs blow up, not “crack labs”), allegedly answered that he was also in the drug business. The other three — off-duty Marin County sheriff’s deputies in town for a two-week narcotics training course — put their training into practice. “We let him lead the conversation,” said one of the detectives, to “take it where he wanted to go.” Harris allegedly left and came back with an “eight ball” of cocaine; a detective said she didn’t have anyplace to put it because she was in a bikini, but promised to complete the deal the next day. When deputies met Harris to complete the purchase, he was arrested on drug trafficking charges; a search found 180 grams of cocaine, as well as Ecstasy, LSD, and psychedelic mushrooms, in Harris’s apartment. “This is probably a career case for me,” the detective said. “I don’t think it will ever happen again. I work undercover on a regular basis and have never encountered anything like this.” (MS/San Diego Union Tribune) ...Hot tubs melt obliviot brains.