Retiree Arrested When Cops Mistake Doughnut Glaze for Meth

'It's incredible'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 28, 2016 5:40 PM CDT
Retiree Arrested When Cops Mistake Doughnut Glaze for Meth
   (Shutterstock)

"I recognized through my 11 years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer the substance to be some sort of narcotic," the Orlando Sentinel quotes a police report by officer Shelby Riggs-Hopkins. Riggs-Hopkins must not have nearly as much experience with doughnuts. The Orlando officer pulled over 64-year-old retiree Daniel Rushing last December for minor traffic violations. That's when she spotted a "rock-like substance" she believed to be crystal meth on the floorboard of Rushing's car. She did two field tests that came back positive. Rushing, who had just dropped a neighbor off at chemotherapy and was driving an elderly church friend home, was arrested and strip searched. He spent the next 10 hours in jail.

The only problem: The substance in Rushing's car was glaze from a doughnut. Rushing goes to Krispy Kreme every other Wednesday and enjoys a doughnut in his car. He tried—and failed—to explain this to Riggs-Hopkins during his arrest. Weeks later, a lab test of the substance cleared Rushing. There's no explanation for the original false positives. Rushing describes the experience as "scary." "It was incredible," he tells the Sentinel. "It's just a terrible feeling." An attorney says Rushing plans to sue the city for damages in August. (More weird crimes stories.)

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