PP’s Up In Smoke Caper

I Remember

PP’s Up In Smoke Caper

Opportunity – would you know it when you see it?

The person who decided to take advantage of the Pocatello Police Department’s marijuana display that was set up in the old police station’s lobby on East Lewis Avenue, in the 1970’s must have had a moment where he saw an opportunity to get his hands on some confiscated marijuana.

The daring culprit swiped the marijuana from the glass display case and made a clean get-away with undoubtedly a big smirk on his face as he fled the police station and disappeared into the community. The marijuana culprit remained wanted by the police for several years until the department just chalked-up the theft as one of its many unsolved crimes.

The incident was a big embarrassment to the Pocatello Police Department at the time. It was a bad decision to show off to the public a visual of what marijuana looks like along with the paraphernalia used to ingest it in a unsecured oak framed glass case.

Apparently, the P.P.D. wanted to convey an up-close message to anyone finding themselves having to wait or stand-in line inside the police lobby that progress was being made on the local war on drugs.

There must have been a half-pound of the confiscated cannabis under glass on display.

Apparently, the culprit simply pushed the display case away from the wall slightly enough to where he managed from behind it to displace the glass top enough to then slide it open. He easily reached into it and promptly filled his pockets with the confiscated loot.

The temptation that prompted the theft must have been measured by whether the act was worth getting caught over. Imagine if the confiscated evidence on display were piles of money. What sort of temptations would cross the mind of someone standing in an empty lobby of a police station looking at an unsecured display case filled with money?

Plus, no video cameras around, anywhere?

The P.P.D., and most specifically, Lt. Walker, doesn’t like to respond to any friendly inquiries about the incident today without wanting to know why you want to know about the incident.

The news of the theft at the time was down-played and hushed-up. Yet, locals chuckled about it for years, calling the matter, PP’s Up In Smoke Caper.

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