A 33-year-old man was charged Friday with possession of meth after Washington State Patrol troopers investigated a report of a man “dancing” in the median of Highway 16 near the Tremont Street exit.
“The report matched similar incidents of a male in the median, sometimes hiding in the bushes, reported by passing motorists since the summer of 2014,” a trooper wrote in court documents. “I have responded to many of these calls was never able to observe the individual.”
Two troopers responding to the March 2 call, which was dispatched at about 6:50 a.m., didn’t see a male in the median. One noticed a large hole in a fence leading to a neighborhood off Tremont, however, and when he stepped through the hole he saw a man matching the description of the suspect.
The troopers got back in their vehicles and drove into the neighborhood. When they caught up with the man, he was “moving erratically,” the trooper wrote, “flailing his arms about in an animated fashion.”
When they approached him, the man appeared to discard a used meth pipe from his pocket, though he denied it was his, according to the document. During a search of the man, the trooper also found suspected meth.
“I asked (the man) about the meth, noting that it was the old home-cooked style that was prevalent several years ago,” the trooper wrote.
“(The man) stated that I was correct, that it was locally cooked.”
