Van bought at Broome Tioga auction yields cocaine stash
Published September 20th, 2005
A 42-year-old Binghamton man got much more than he bargained for when he submitted a bid on a maroon 1993 Chevrolet Lumina van during the Broome-Tioga Surplus Auction on Saturday at Grippen Park in Endicott.
Richard L. Jones of Elm Street, who had the winning bid, removed a panel under the steering wheel before leaving the auction, and a plastic baggie containing 30 pieces of rock cocaine fell out, Broome County sheriff’s deputies said.
Narcotics investigators estimated the bag contained about 5 grams of crack cocaine with a street value of $450, according to Broome County Sheriff David E. Harder.
The amount of Jones’ bid was unavailable.
A sheriff’s department report said the van had been involved in a narcotics investigation Feb. 15.
Harder said he did not know why the drugs were not discovered when the vehicle was searched. The van, however, was confiscated by the department, he said.
There will be no disciplinary action against the unnamed detective who signed the search sheet nor the Endicott man who was driving the vehicle when it was pulled over. “It’s just one of those things, a case that we are now considering is closed,” Harder said.
Even Autioneer Matt Manasse, of Mel Manasse & Son of Whitney Point, was surprised.
“The items seem to get stranger every year, but that is the first time in my 17 years anyone has found drugs in a car we auctioned off,” he said.
