Woman Took Heroin In Brick Restaurant Bathroom While Dinner Got Cold: Police

Brick, NJ -- A Toms River woman who police say let her dinner get cold while she took heroin in the bathroom of a Brick Township restaurant is facing multiple drug charges, Brick police said.

Lindsay Oconnell, 28, of Toms River, has been charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of hypodermic needles in the June 30 incident, Sgt. Neal Pedersen said Friday.

Police were called to Joe's Crab Shack about 8 p.m. on June 30 for a report of a female customer who was possibly using drugs in the bathroom, Pedersen said.

Sgt. Erik Olsen, Patrolman Frank Mauro and Patrolman Dominic Puccio, who were working in an undercover capacity with the Selective Enforcement Team, arrived and were told a female customer had been in the bathroom for over more than 20 minutes possibly ingesting drugs while her food was sitting at her table getting cold, Pedersen said.

By that time, the woman -- identified as Oconnell -- had returned to her table and officers were able to speak with her.

While officers spoke with Oconnell, Puccio and restaurant management checked the bathroom for signs of drug use and located numerous empty wax paper packets that had contained heroin in the stall that Oconnell allegedly had been in, Pedersen said.

Officers speaking with Oconnell found that she had several drugs in her possession: 50 wax folds of heroin, four hypodermic needles, four clonazepam pills and 13 Xanax pills, he said.

Oconnell also had nine large white paper folds with white powder residue inside and a plastic container with an unknown brown substance inside, Pedersen said. The powdery substances will be tested to determine what they contain, he said.

The investigation revealed Oconnell had ingested heroin in the bathroom stall and discarded the used packages in the stall, Pedersen said.

Oconnell was arrested and released with a summons after processing, he said.

Wax folds containing heroin, by Karen Wall