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Texas Cops Thought Cat Litter Was Crystal Meth In Embarrassing Arrest

By Chelsea Hoffman
Published on: 07:58 PST, Jan 8, 2017

Some cops in Texas have reportedly mistaken cat litter for crystal meth, and now the man’s arrest is attracting attention in the news, and on social media. Live 5 News reports that Ross Lebeau was jailed for three days, after authorities in Houston made the embarrassing blunder.

Ross says the arrest took place in December, 2016. Houston police pulled him over for what began as a routine traffic stop. However, when authorities spotted a sock that appeared to be stuffed with something, things took an unfortunate turn for the Texas man.

The sock actually contained about a half-pound of cat litter, but police at the time of the arrest, for some reason, believed that they had made a potential drug bust. The Texas man says that he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, based solely on the sock that had been filled with kitty litter.

While this may seem like a laughable event to some people, things got worse from there. Ross Lebeau reportedly spent three days in jail in association with the bizarre arrest. Furthermore, and perhaps the most shocking detail in this case, the substance in the sock tested positive for the illicit drug. The sock was “field-tested” twice by authorities, and each time the contents tested positive. However, a third test done by the forensic lab concluded that the sock did indeed contain nothing more than cat litter.

This isn’t the first time police have mistaken everyday items for illegal contraband. Back in July 2016, a Florida man was arrested when police erroneously believed the glaze from his Krispy Kreme donut was crystal meth. USA Today reports that the Orlando man was arrested during a traffic stop, during which time police noted “a rock-like substance” on the floorboard of the car. The police thought this substance was methamphetamine, but in reality, it was nothing more than crumbled glaze from donuts that had been eaten throughout the week.

The little white flakes of icing were field-tested by cops, at the scene, and they tested positive for the illegal drug. This is similar to the arrest of Texas man Ross Lebeau, and points out a possible issue with police field-testing kits.

As for this latest case out of Texas, Lebeau has declared that he doesn’t blame the cops. However, he and his attorney do believe that the field testing kits aren’t accurate — which has been shown by his embarrassing arrest. While his case was dismissed this week, the Texas man is embarrassed that the info surrounding the wrongful arrest remains publicly visible online.

So why did the Houston man have a sock full of cat litter in his car, anyway? According to Ross, his father had given both him and his sister the socks filled with litter, because he believed that keeping them in a car would reduce window fogging.

It should be noted that newer types of cat litter look like small crystals, and there have been instances on social media of people calling it meth. Could this be the reason the Texas man’s arrest got so out-of-hand?

What do you think about police field-testing kits in light of these wrongful arrests? Is the technology behind them flawed, or do the few mistakes make up for the many legitimate arrests that come from their usage?

[Featured Image via Coprid/Shutterstock]

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