Man Admits To Making Meth In Wayne Hotel Parking Lot: Police

A manager with The Tilted Kilt restaurant chain was arrested Wednesday after police caught him making methamphetamine in his car in the nearby Ramada Inn on Route 46 East, police said.

Police officers Joseph Rooney and Rob Fernandez caught Christopher Gary Poole, 34 of Barrington, filtering and mixing liquids into water bottles in his 2007 Chrysler Sebring in the parking lot of the Tilted Kilt Wednesday night, Capt. Laurence Martin said.

Rooney and Fernandez saw that an interior light was on in the vehicle and “clearly” saw Poole moving around inside; they stood outside the vehicle for a few minutes and watched as Poole filtered liquids and poured substances into clear water bottles, Martin said.

A billowing “white cloud of flumes” filled up the inside of the car, Martin said, and police took Poole out of the vehicle.

Poole told police that he was mixing ammonia, nitrate, lighter fluid, lye, lithium, drain cleaner, salt, and pseudoephedrine to try and make methamphetamine, Martin said, and that he had syringes too.

The Wayne Fire Department, HAZMAT Team, Wayne First Aid Squad, Wayne Narcotics Police Offices, the Passaic County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad, and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s clandestine lab group also responded to the scene and helped neutralize and dismantle the mobile meth lab, Martin said.

Poole was being held on $5,000 bail with no 10 percent option pending his arraignment at the Passaic County Superior Court, Martin said. He was charged with creating widespread risk of injury or damage, possession of and manufacturing of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

(Pictured: Christopher Gary Poole, 34/Courtesy of Wayne Police Department)