Police eat laced muffins
July 17 2013 at 10:51am
By DAILY NEWS REPORTER
By DAILY NEWS REPORTER
Nine police officers from the Montclair
police station were taken to hospital after they unwittingly ate a batch of
muffins allegedly laced with dagga given them by a colleague celebrating her
birthday.
According to police sources at the
station, two hours after consuming the “space muffins”, the officers who were
all working the night shift on July 4 began hallucinating while others
experienced symptoms of paranoia.
“They were all high as kites,” a source
said. “One of the members just sat in a corner and was laughing for no reason.
They didn’t know what was happening to them. A lot of them were confused and
couldn’t explain what they were feeling.
“There were 10 of them on duty at the
station and only one of them didn’t get high because she only ate the chicken.”
The officer who did not eat the muffins
alerted the station’s management.
Paramedics were called and the officers
were rushed to Entabeni and St Augustine’s hospitals where they were treated.
Officers from surrounding stations had
to be called in to man station while crime prevention officers on duty in the
area took over the van duties.
The incident occurred after a female
constable brought a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and homemade muffins for
her colleagues in the charge office in celebration of her birthday.
It is believed that none of the
officers, including the shift commander – a captain – knew that the muffins
were allegedly laced with dagga.
In a statement, the provincial police
spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, said: “At this stage, it is just suspected food
poisoning. The police officers ate numerous items during the birthday
celebration and it cannot be confirmed which item of food was contaminated.
There is no truth to the rumour that it was dagga-laced muffins. The individual
who supplied the food was also affected.”
When pressed for clarification on the
telephone later, Naicker did concede that investigators had not ruled out the
possibility that the officers might have eaten dagga-laced muffins.
“It is too early to speculate. We have
sent the food for testing to a laboratory. This could be a simple case of food
poisoning,” he said.
However, a police source said that it
was an open secret that the officers had eaten dagga-laced muffins.
“How can they say it was food poisoning
when the members were laughing their heads off for no reason? Everyone who
works at Montclair knows what went on that night,” the officer said.
Naicker said the officers had all been
discharged from hospital, but had not yet returned to work.
He could not provide a reason why they
had not yet done.
The incident came in the same week that
the Montclair Community Policing Forum launched a drug awareness campaign at
the station.
Forum chairman, Gavin Hegter, said they
were extremely concerned about the allegations.
“We know for a fact that the entire
shift got ill and had to be taken to hospital. The reason for this we don’t
know yet. There are various rumours doing the rounds,” he said.
“The muffins they had as well as the
KFC was sent away for analysis and until the results come back it is pure
speculation. From the CPF side we are extremely concerned and we will be
following this up and hopefully get to the bottom of it.”
Hegter said the Montclair station
commander had promised to keep him abreast of results of the lab test.
“If it is found that the muffins were
laced with narcotics, appropriate action would have to be taken against those
responsible.
“I also just want to say that if there
were narcotics involved I believe that the officers who consumed them did not
do it intentionally because some of them are our credible members,” he said.
“With our drug awareness campaign
currently taking place this is not something we take lightly. I am determined
to get to the bottom of it and for the responsible people to be dealt with.”
