Nude Man Caught Hiding 7.2 Grams Of Cocaine In His Foreskin

A 24-year-old man named Joshua Hare was arrested in Swindon, U.K., after customers of a furniture store heard him shouting in the parking lot. By the time police arrived, Hare had somehow managed to get completely naked and stuff 7.2 grams of cocaine into his foreskin.

According to Metro, the incident took place at a Homebase mega store at about 8:30 a.m. on June 17. Joshua Hare had reportedly been making a nuisance of himself in public when he realized police were coming to arrest him. Being completely nude at that point, the man had nowhere to hide his cocaine, so he stashed it in the only place he could find. After police took him into custody, they noticed a clear plastic bag full of white powder starting to slide out of his foreskin.

Joshua Hare reportedly put up quite a struggle when police arrested him and was later taken to the hospital, but it’s unclear what health condition he was suffering from at the time.

On Tuesday, Joshua Hare faced the Swindon Magistrates Court, where he pleaded guilty to possession of the 7.2 grams of cocaine he hid in his foreskin. According to the Salisbury Journal, he also confessed to failing to surrender to bail. Prosecutor Keith Ballinger had to paint a visual image to the court about how police witnessed the bag of white powder “emerging” from Joshua Hare’s genitalia. The substance inside his foreskin would later test positive for cocaine.

However, things began to make a bit more sense when Hare’s attorney, Nick Redhead, explained that his client suffers from a litany of problems. Not only is Joshua Hare homeless, he also struggles with drug and alcohol abuse and possible mental health issues.

According to the Huffington Post, Joshua Hare was also suffering from kidney problems when he was arrested several months ago for stealing a car, which earned him a suspended sentence.

“He was last in court in May for aggravated taking of a vehicle without consent and was given a suspended sentence,” said the prosecutor.

Despite these problems, the lawyer claimed Hare was actually on the road to recovery — at least from alcoholism.

“He fell into a coma and thought he was going to die [earlier this year]. The damage to him as such is he is a high risk of killing himself if he continues to misuse alcohol. He has managed to stay away from alcohol pretty much.”

This does little to excuse Joshua Hare’s decision to strip down nude in public, cause a disturbance, and hide a bag of cocaine in his foreskin. However, Redhead expressed a hope that the magistrates would go easy on his client considering his troubled past and ongoing health issues.

Bench chairman Mary Holland ultimately decided that Joshua Hare had to be jailed for at least 12 weeks, primarily because he had breached his previous suspended sentence. She claimed that, following the incident with the cocaine found in his foreskin, she had “no option” but to put him behind bars.

Joshua Hare was also ordered to pay a fine of £115 to an unidentified victim, seemingly from the auto theft, not the indecent exposure at the furniture store.

What would you have done in the same situation as Joshua Hare? Would you have resorted to hiding the cocaine in a place as strange as foreskin? How would you have reacted to seeing the bag emerge?

[Photo via the Swindon Magistrates Court]