Syringes Are for Insulin, Man Says; Police Learn Otherwise: Brecksville Police Blotter

The following incident was reported by the Brecksville Police Department on Nov. 18. The information was compiled from a police report.

Police thought a North Royalton man’s story didn’t add up during a traffic stop on Nov. 18. Police pulled over a vehicle with a cracked windshield on Highland Drive at about 2:15 p.m. 

The driver said he was dropping off the passenger at home and then heading to work. The passenger, a 22-year-old North Royalton man, said he had just gotten off work at a restaurant in Broadview Heights.  The officer questioned the time frame and thought the direction they were driving didn’t make sense for their story. The officer ran their information, finding some prior drug-related charges for both, and they were asked to step out of the car. 

The officer soon found a bag with some syringes inside. The passenger told police that he had “type A” diabetes and that the insulin and prescription were at home. 

There were a few main problems with this story:

• The man showed the officer a copy of the times he checked in and out of work that day—he got off around 12:30 p.m., not 2 p.m. like he had originally said. 
• There was a receipt with the syringes for a pharmacy in North Royalton.  The syringes had been purchased around 1:15 p.m. that day. The man first tried to say he walked there from his job. He then changed his story and said his brother took him there and dropped him back off in Broadview Heights. 
• The officer pointed out that the correct terminology is type 1 or 2 diabetes—not “A.”
• The man’s mother, who he lives with, said he does not have diabetes. 

At that point, the man said he had recently started using heroin again. He was charged with possession of drug abuse instruments. 

Everybody makes mistakes—even us! If there's something in this article that you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, give Local Editor Rachel Abbey McCafferty a ring at 440-292-7245 or shoot her an email at rachel.abbey@patch.com.