What do you do when you see cops headed your way and you’ve got a quarter-pound of cocaine in your pocket? If you’re Jose Reynoso-Aleantara of Stamford Connecticut, you throw it at a stop sign. You know, because of reasons.
Adrenalin Rush Gone Wrong
Reynoso-Aleantara was shuffling down to the street corner in his pajamas last Thursday when he spotted officers from the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit, who had staked out the corner on a tip. Spotting their badges, the 47-year-old turned tail and flung his drugs at a nearby stop sign. In what would surely make a hilarious animated gif, the black plastic bag hit the sign and burst, scattering coke everywhere. Poor Reynoso-Aleantara. If it had been January, he might have had a prayer that his jettisoned cargo would get lost in the snow. No such luck on the first of May. Thanks, global warming.
As if the cokesplosion weren’t embarrassment enough, Reynoso-Aleantara was arrested wearing his pajamas and slippers. Party foul. He even ran right out of his slippers at one point but was soon caught by the apparently better-shod policemen. He was charged with possession and sale of narcotics as well as interference with the police and was held in lieu of $150,000 bond.
Clearing the Crime Scene (And Wasting Drugs)
The officers returned to collect as much of the coke as they could—about 75 grams—and then threw buckets of water on the powder trapped in the cracks of the sidewalk to destroy it. (Don’t tell me that doesn’t tug at your heartstrings a little bit. No? Just me. Okay.)
If there’s a moral to this story, I’m not sure what it is other than the fact that getting caught red handed induces sheer panic. Faced with certain arrest, anyone might have done the same as poor Reynoso-Aleantara, pajamas notwithstanding. No other arrests in connection with the deal have been reported though, so chances are somebody has PJ Jose to thank for his freedom today.