Green Bay woman finds crystal meth, cocaine valued at $280K inside her vacuum

Doug Schneider

Green Bay Press Gazette

January 15, 2011

On the first day of Christmas, my children gave to me … a vacuum cleaner packaged with $280,000 worth of drugs.

Investigators say a Green Bay woman got quite a surprise Dec. 25 when she opened the refurbished vacuum cleaner she'd been given, and discovered two pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 2.2 pounds of cocaine packaged inside the box.

"This was an 'are you kidding me' incident," said Lt. David Poteat, who heads the Brown County Drug Task Force.

It's likely that a smuggler inserted the drugs into the vacuum cleaner box before the unit was shipped from the Juarez, Mexico, area, where it had been reconditioned, Poteat said. No one, including the Green Bay retailer who sold the vacuum, noticed anything amiss, he said, until the woman opened the package and called police.

Authorities say they're convinced the woman played no part in the drug shipment, and don't plan to charge her. They aren't identifying the woman, or the store where the vacuum was purchased, while the case is under investigation.

Poteat said criminals use a variety of ways to get drugs into the Green Bay market, including sneaking them into packages containing other items.

"Meth, in general, has not been a significant issue for us," he added. "But cocaine has remained strong in this area" of Wisconsin.

Last year, the task force, which operates primarily in Brown County, seized drugs with an estimated street value of $2.65 million — up significantly compared with 2009 figures. Cocaine seizures totaled 8.7 pounds. Meth seizures totaled 1.9 pounds.