A speeding stop on Fair Street near Race Street in Berea on Tuesday unraveled into a far bigger case after officers found marijuana vapes, a fake ID and a locked safe holding $3,740 in cash inside the car, ultimately leading to the arrest of a 53-year-old Berea man on outstanding warrants from two neighboring suburbs.
Berea police clocked a Ford Escape traveling 41 mph in a 25-mph zone before pulling the vehicle over after it turned from West Street onto Prospect Street, according to Cleveland.com. A 17-year-old Berea boy was behind the wheel, driving a 15-year-old friend home, the outlet reported. Officers cited the 17-year-old for speeding and, upon approaching the car, smelled marijuana coming from inside.
Vapes, a Marijuana Cigar and a Locked Safe
Because both boys were underage and officers detected marijuana in the vehicle, police searched the Ford Escape, the report says. The 15-year-old passenger handed over a marijuana cigar that had been tucked in the center console under the radio, and officers went on to confiscate several marijuana vapes found throughout the car. A fake North Carolina identification card also turned up inside the vehicle, per the same account.
Officers also found a backpack sitting on the passenger-seat floor. The 15-year-old told police the bag contained a safe, and he provided officers the key to open it. Inside was $3,740 in cash, according to the outlet’s report.
Conflicting Stories About the Cash
The teen initially told police the money was his life savings, but later said half of it belonged to his father, the report states. He then called his father, who arrived at the scene of the stop. The father told officers he had given his son $400 earlier that day and separately said he had given his son money because he feared going to jail, according to the account relayed to police. The father and the boy’s mother had reportedly been fighting at the time he handed over the funds.
Father Arrested on Outstanding Warrants
When the 53-year-old man showed up, Berea police recognized that he was wanted on outstanding warrants out of Fairview Park and North Olmsted, two neighboring Cuyahoga County suburbs, and placed him in handcuffs at the scene. Fairview Park and North Olmsted sit within roughly five to ten miles of Berea and share overlapping municipal court and law enforcement systems across western Cuyahoga County, which is why suburban departments in the area routinely cross-reference each other’s warrant databases, according to the Westlake-Rocky River Municipal Court. The specific nature of the father’s warrants in those two cities has not been detailed publicly…