Crime & Safety

USPS Authorities Intercept Tinley-Bound Pot Package

Local police recently arrested a Tinley Park resident who they said was the intended recipient of a box of marijuana being shipped by the postal service.

A United States Postal Service inspector's suspicion about a peculiar package proved valid when reportedly found 223 grams of pot stowed inside.

The inspector contacted police on April 24 regarding the box, which was intercepted at O'Hare airport. He told them the return address on the parcel was fictitious and no name was associated with it. Other strange characteristics of the package included "heavily taped" seams and a heavy center mass, according to the police report. 

It was scheduled to be delivered to a 191st Street address by noon on April 24, but the inspector postponed that time in order to team up with  investigators.

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The postal inspector, an Illinois State Police K-9 handler and local investigators convened May 4 at the to examine the package. They hid it in a cabinet before the K-9 was present and he alerted to it as soon as he entered the room, the report said. 

Tinley Park officers then went to the parcel's destination in hopes of tracking down its recipient—marked on the box only as "J.C. Foster." They learned that James C. Foster, 24, was renting a basement room in the 191st Street home.

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The California native was summoned to the police department, where he reportedly went on May 5 for an interview. He granted investigators written permission to open the package, they said.

"Upon opening the parcel I discovered two vacuum sealed plastic bags wrapped in two T-shirts," an officer wrote in the report. "The two vacuum-sealed bags contained a total of four Ziplock plastic bags wrapped with fabric softener sheets and each contained (marijuana)."

Foster told police the package came from a friend in California who sent it, as requested, to help him celebrate his birthday and the end of the school year, the report said. Police noted that the 223 grams of weed come with a total street value of about $1,500.

Foster was charged with one count of felony possession of marijuana. 

 

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