Photo: Webb County Sheriff’s Office
Barn finds are the equivalent of Christmas-come-early for car enthusiasts: you get a surprise you never imagined and, with it, the chance to make some extra cash. This is not one of those times.
Treasures, it would seem, can come in different shapes even in the auto world. This is what one man from Laredo, Texas learned a few days ago, when he drove the car he’d just bought at a car auction home and uncovered a secret compartment.
That secret compartment brought the total value of the car up to $850,000, presumably many times over what he’d paid for the vehicle. And yes, there were drugs inside, as the Webb County Sheriff’s Office confirms for the Houston Chronicle.
The police say the man had bought the car at an auction in the Rio Grande Valley, but don’t detail what car he bought or where it had come from. What is known is that it came with 74 pounds (33.5 kg) of cocaine tucked inside, at the street value of $850,000.
The man called the police during the weekend to say he’d found a secret compartment filled with neatly packed packages that could possibly contain drugs. Officers found 17 of them in that compartment, and then a K-9 unit uncovered another 17 in a second hidden compartment.
“I thank and congratulate the person who alerted us to the drugs. Had he not been an honest individual, the drugs could have ended up in the wrong hands,” Sheriff Martin Cuellar says in a statement. He encourages other citizens to alert the police whenever they notice suspicious activity and, if warm praise from an official is not enough incentive, he adds, “You may be eligible for a cash reward.”
On the downside, this honest car buyer from Texas will have to make do without his newly-acquired car for the time being, since it was probably impounded for the duration of the investigation.
That secret compartment brought the total value of the car up to $850,000, presumably many times over what he’d paid for the vehicle. And yes, there were drugs inside, as the Webb County Sheriff’s Office confirms for the Houston Chronicle.
The police say the man had bought the car at an auction in the Rio Grande Valley, but don’t detail what car he bought or where it had come from. What is known is that it came with 74 pounds (33.5 kg) of cocaine tucked inside, at the street value of $850,000.
The man called the police during the weekend to say he’d found a secret compartment filled with neatly packed packages that could possibly contain drugs. Officers found 17 of them in that compartment, and then a K-9 unit uncovered another 17 in a second hidden compartment.
“I thank and congratulate the person who alerted us to the drugs. Had he not been an honest individual, the drugs could have ended up in the wrong hands,” Sheriff Martin Cuellar says in a statement. He encourages other citizens to alert the police whenever they notice suspicious activity and, if warm praise from an official is not enough incentive, he adds, “You may be eligible for a cash reward.”
On the downside, this honest car buyer from Texas will have to make do without his newly-acquired car for the time being, since it was probably impounded for the duration of the investigation.
Google News