Authorities in Hernando County, Florida, couldn’t believe their ears last week when one resident called 911 with undoubtedly one of the strangest requests they had ever received.
At approximately 7 p.m. on Thursday, an adult man called police dispatchers to request that deputies come to his Spring Hill home to “test the methamphetamine” he had recently purchased from his drug dealer, police said.
Thomas Eugene Colucci, 41, was apparently suspicious that his dealer had cheated him by selling him “fake” meth — and he was eager to see if his hypothesis was correct. Needless to say, deputies happily obliged.
The bizarre incident was documented in a post on the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
In the post, the sheriff’s office recounted that upon arrival, deputies conducted an interview with Colucci, during which he freely admitted to them that he recently purchased methamphetamine from a male he met in a local bar.
However, he said, after having used some of it, he came to believe the contents were not meth but actually bath salts. He told deputies he knew this because he was an experienced drug user who had used meth before and “knew what it should feel like.”
Colucci then “produced two small baggies, each containing a white crystal-like substance” and gave them to the deputies. He reportedly claimed that he wanted his stash tested so that others wouldn’t go on to purchase “fake” meth from the same individual who sold it to him.
“Evidently, the substance Colucci had recently purchased did not provide the expected sensation,” officials quipped in the post.
He further requested that deputies “put the person in trouble” for selling dangerous drugs, though, according to officials, he was unable to provide a name or any contact info for his dealer.
Nevertheless, deputies performed a field test on the samples and, to Colucci’s surprise, both came back positive for meth.
Deputies arrested Colucci and charged him with one count of possession of methamphetamine and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. He is currently being held at the Hernando County Detention Center on a $7,000 bond.
“If you, or someone you know, have doubts about the authenticity of any illegal narcotics you have on-hand or have obtained from another person, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to provide this service, FREE of charge,” officials jokingly stated.
Amazingly, it’s not the first time police have been asked to test someone’s meth. The same thing happened in 2018. That time in Putnam County, Florida.