Corey Jermaine Sawyer, 30, was arrested during a traffic stop at 2400 E. University Ave. shortly after midnight Monday, said Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias.
An officer pulled Sawyer over and saw him chewing as he approached the vehicle. The officer said he smelled cannabis in the car and noticed a clear plastic bag by Sawyer’s thigh.
After having his Miranda rights read to him, Sawyer said he chewed the marijuana because he was afraid and didn’t know what else to do.
Tobias said 2.5 grams of marijuana were recovered. Sawyer is being charged with possession of marijuana and tampering with evidence.
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Gainesville Police warned of a door-to-door scam Monday involving a well-dressed woman in her 40s.
The scammer talked a 91-year-old woman out of $200 this month.
The victim heard a knock on her door at about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 2, Tobias said.
The woman at the door appeared distressed and told the victim she lived down the street and needed the money to get to Georgia to see her mother, who she said had a heart attack.
The woman said she and her husband worked at Home Depot and would return in a week to pay the victim back.
The victim said the woman didn’t appear homeless or intoxicated, nor did she force her way inside her home.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office reported a similar scam.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 8/26/2014 under the headline "Police blotter round-up: swallowing pot, door-to-door scams"]
