In my college years, I purchased used books. I would go to the bookstore and try to find the cleanest ones I could – ones without too much scribbling, highlighting or even a piece of gum. In one student’s case the unexpected (and unwanted) gift-with-a-textbook-purchase was a bag of cocaine.
Sophia Stockton — a junior at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas — recently ordered a textbook from an independent retailer through the Amazon online storefront. The book was intended for a spring course on terrorism and is called “Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues.”
Maybe the book should have been titled something like, “Understanding Drug Abuse.”
When Stockton flipped through the textbook, she “discovered a bag of white powder had fallen to the ground.” According to WPTV, Stockton feared that the bag contained anthrax and took it to the local police department the next day.
Stockton said, “I told them white powder was in my terrorism textbook and so I put it on the table and they’re like, ‘oh, okay,’ And so he went back and tested it,” Stockton recalls. “ He comes back and says, ‘you didn’t happen to order some cocaine with your textbook, did you?’ And I was like, no!”
Gardner law enforcement officials speculate that there may have been up to $400 worth of cocaine in the bag.
Wow! That’s enough money to buy two – three more books.
Officials reached out to Amazon for more information about how such an incident could have occurred. While Stockton’s textbook was purchased through the online retailer, it comes from Warehouse Deals. This Amazon storefront offers “deep discounts on open-box, like-new, refurbished, or used products that are in good condition but do not meet Amazon.com’s rigorous standards as ‘new.'”
According to the Warehouse Deals’ page on Amazon, all items are inspected prior to being offered for sale: Prior to offering an item for sale on Warehouse Deals, we verify its physical and functional condition.
Items purchased through independent sellers on the Amazon website are covered by the company’s “A-to-z Guarantee,” so Stockton could theoretically file a claim on the grounds that the item she purchased was “not the item depicted in the seller’s description.” (We sincerely doubt that cocaine was mentioned in the product description, after all.)
At this time, it remains a mystery how $400 worth of cocaine wound up in a used textbook.
Stockton waited a day to alert authorities. If the bag in Stockton’s textbook did contain anthrax — as she initially feared — immediate and appropriate medical evaluation and treatment would’ve been essential.
Read story@ msnbc
