Baked by a potato? North Bend police confiscate vegetable allegedly used to smoke marijuana

Published 11:15 am Friday, March 4, 2011

A King County Sheriff’s Deputy confiscated a potato from a couple who were allegedly using the vegetable to smoke other, more illicit vegetable matter.

According to reports from the sheriff’s North Bend detachment, the officer arrested a 19-year-old North Bend man and an 18-year-old Snoqualmie woman after noticing them sitting in their car in the dark at the end of a dead end street, Southeast Fifth Avenue, about 11 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28.

When the officer approached, he saw someone in the car making furtive movements, apparently trying to hide something. Contacting the duo, the officer believed they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and questioned them until they acknowledged that “there might be something illegal in the car,” North Bend Police Chief Mark Toner said.

Inside a backpack, the officer found a yellow pill bottle containing marijuana and half of a raw potato with four holes poked in it and some black scorch marks. The root vegetable smelled strongly of marijuana, according to the report.

“I haven’t seen one of these in probably, 10 years,” Toner said of the potato pipe.

Due to its perishable nature, the potato was thrown away after being photographed.

“The dope, we kept,” Toner said.

Both the man and woman were charged with one county of marijuana possession, a misdemeanor.