Landlord alerts authorities to suspected meth cook in Wooster

Tenant complaints of a foul odor and suspicious trash found on trash day led to the discovery of a one-pot meth operation at a North Bever Street apartment.

And one man tried to warn them.

"I said you guys are sitting here like fish in a barrel," Les Workman, of Wooster, said Wednesday afternoon.

He was one of nearly a dozen on-lookers watching Medway Drug Enforcement Agency agents clean out a suspected meth lab at an apartment located at 3271⁄2 N. Bever St.

Workman said he knew the apartment resident and was at his place the day before to pick up some clothes.

"I didn't like the smell," Workman said, adding he warned the man it was only a matter of time before he got caught. And on Wednesday as he was walking home from work and saw police cruisers in front of the apartment, Workman said "I knew for sure what it was about ... they didn't believe me I guess."

Medway Technical Surveillance Agent Josh Hunt said the agency was called shortly after 11 a.m. to the North Bever residence by the landlord who reported suspicious trash found on the curb, and said some tenants complained to him about a foul smell. Residents who lived in the two main floor apartments were evacuated while the scene was investigated and the meth trash cleared.

"We found items consistent with a one-pot meth lab," Hunt said, both inside the trash container and then in the upstairs apartment. During a search of the home, multiple bags of meth trash and one-pot labs were located and brought outside to be neutralized.

Jason Waddell, senior agent for Medway, said upon arriving at the scene he was able to see a one-pot meth lab sitting inside an open garbage bag.

Wooster firefighters and police officers were on standby to assist at the scene.

Waddell said three people located inside the apartment were taken to the Wayne County Jail and will be charged; one was arrested for a probation violation and two on charges related to the meth lab.

He added the landlord told him trash is collected weekly, "So we know they've been at it at least a week."

No finished meth product was found at the scene.

Reporter Steve Huszai can be reached at 330-287-1645 or shuszai@the-daily-record.com. He is @GeneralSmithie on Twitter.

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