Maybe chemistry should have been in their curriculum…

A recent story made me wonder what kind of basic training applicants for the police department in Portales is required. It must not have included basic chemistry.

Police reported that a guest at a local motel complained that when he turned on a faucet in his bathroom, a shard of methamphetamine shot out of it and struck him in the eye. 

Drugs on tap? Well no, actually it was just a piece of salt from a malfunctioning water softener at the hotel. The faulty water softener also managed to send some of the sodium chloride into the ice making machine.

However, when the incident was first reported, police were so convinced that the crystal object was an illegal drug that they shut down the motel, called in a hazmat team and tested the city’s water supply. They feared a large amount of meth had mysteriously made its way into the eastern New Mexico city’s water supply. The suspected injection of the drug and the investigation to protect Portales citizens was proudly featured on the department’s Facebook page.

When the lab analysis of the substance was reported as being common table salt, the police department had no further comment and there was no more reference to the incident by the agency on its Facebook page. Well, except for a post by one follower who opined: “No wonder the water bill was so high.”