Chance encounter leads to drug arrests
<span>In a Friday news release from the Chester Police Department, it was stated officers recently stumbled upon an illegal drug possession case while investigating an unrelated residential burglary.</span>
<span>While investigating the burglary, two Chester police officers located some shoe prints in the snow that generated some interest in connection with the burglary.</span>
<span>The officers tracked the prints and found themselves next to a vehicle occupied by four female subjects.</span>
<span>When one of the officers noticed them in the vehicle, he felt compelled to explain what he was doing. This attempt to make verbal contact prompted one of the occupants to roll down the window.</span>
<span>In doing so, this individual released the pungent odor of burnt cannabis from the vehicle into the air. </span>
<span>The investigation then, at least temporarily, shifted to the occupants of the vehicle - which resulted in the arrest of 20-year-old Megan Throop of Chester for unlawful possession of cannabis and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.</span>
<span>A felony charge of unlawful possession of methamphetamine is pending.</span>
<span>"Part of the reason why we shared it is its uniqueness," said Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey in a phone interview with the Herald Tribune. "Things can change on a dime. (Officers) had to change their focus, make the arrest and then shift gears back to the burglary.</span>
<span>"It's kind of an insight into the view of a police officer."</span>
<span>Officers also took two juvenile subjects into custody. Juvenile petitions for a 15-year-old female and a 16-year-old female alleging unlawful possession of cannabis, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of methamphetamine are pending.</span>
The fourth unidentified female was released.
The individuals in the car are not suspects in the original burglary case. Coffey said he did not know which individual rolled down the window and initiated the arrest.