(CHUNCHULA, Ala.) A local constable arrested a teen Tuesday night who is accused of making methamphetamine in a post office, authorities said.
The 15-year-old was taken to Strickland Youth Center, charged with unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance and trafficking a controlled substance.
A Mobile County Sheriff's Department spokesperson said Wednesday afternoon that another suspect in the case is still on the run, and could face serious charges because it happened on federal property.
Mobile County Constable Eugene Aucoin said he had just returned from a hunting trip to check his mail Tuesday night when he noticed the teen and the man inside the Chunchula Post Office.
"I pulled up and then observing two young teenagers inside the post office sitting on the floor fidgeting behind the garbage can," Aucoin said.
That garbage can was propping open the front door Wednesday afternoon, Aucoin said, to air-out what is left of the powerful methamphetamine smell.
"If you've ever smelled liquid Drain-O, or ammonia, that's what it was going to smell like when they're cooking it off," Aucoin said. "They told me they were waiting on a ride from their momma. I said, 'Ok, how long have you all been here?', trying to get where I could see what was going on. I could smell what was going on, but I couldn't see and that wasn't enough for me to go on."
Aucoin said that is when the two ran off. Aucoin said he was able to arrest the 15-year-old, who had with him a small meth operation.
"It's the most comical," Aucoin said about the arrest. "Broad daylight, lit lobby, sitting there cooking meth inside the post office. Luck. Just luck and stupidity."
Mobile County Sheriff's spokesperson Joe Mahoney said the two might have figured the rural post office to be an ideal place to manufacture the methamphetamine.
"They had this product they wanted to cook," Mahoney said. "They saw this building. It's a lit building, which is open 24 hours or at least the lobby portion of it is."
Mahoney said the man in this 20's, whom they are still searching for, could face serious prison time when he is arrested.
"We have a good idea of who he is," Mahoney said. "He has a pretty extensive criminal history. Being that they're in a federal building, we're really hoping to enhance those charges and take this maybe to a federal level. So we're not going to release his name until we have all of our ducks in a row."
