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Police officers never know what they’re going to encounter during a traffic stop, and those routine procedures can result in plenty of unexpected discoveries. That was certainly the case with one that was recently executed in Ohio that led to a woman being hit with drug charges with the help of a raccoon holding a meth pipe in her front seat.
If I’ve learned anything from watching countless episodes of Cops over the years, it’s that one of the biggest mistakes you can make if you decide to break the law is to commit multiple crimes at the same time.
For example, if you’re going to be driving around in a car that happens to contain a bunch of drugs and paraphernalia, you want to make sure the taillights are working, your license and registration are valid, and that it’s not stolen (that last one might be obvious to most people, but as Cops as taught me, it’s more of an issue than you might think).
According to ABC News, one woman in Ohio failed to heed that advice when police in the city of Springfield pulled her over on Monday night after running her plates and discovering she had both a suspended driver’s license and a warrant out for her arrest.
The woman, identified as a 55-year-old Akron resident named Victoria Vidal, was promptly detained after being stopped during what seemed like it was going to be a fairly straightforward arrest.
However, that did not end up being the case, as the officer who stopped her realized it might be a good idea to search the car after spotting a raccoon in the front seat holding a glass pipe that’s typically used to smoke crystal meth.
A subsequent sweep led to the discovery of a “bulk amount of methamphetamine” in the vehicle in addition to some crack cocaine and two other pipes with meth residue that were found thanks to the red flag raised by Chewy, the name given to the pet raccoon Vidal had the requisite papers to keep in her possession.
However, Chewy may need to find a new home now that her owner is facing drug charges stemming from the stop.