DRUG BUST YIELDS $3.25 AND A BICYCLE

CHAPEL HILL - A Chapel Hill man was accused last week of pedaling
while he peddled.

He was charged with maintaining a late-model Next Avalon Comfort
Bike for selling crack cocaine.

Police nabbed him as he ran into some woods in the Northside
neighborhood. He might have escaped on his seven-speed Comfort Bike,
but the chain fell off with police in hot pursuit.

Police took custody of $3.25 in cash, along with his
two-wheeler, which police estimate to be worth about $20.

"It wasn't in great shape," said Officer D.N. Britt of the Chapel Hill
police.

Police charged him with obtaining property by false pretenses,
resisting arrest and cocaine possession with intent to sell, even
though they did not find drugs on his person. Britt said police were
acting on a witness statement and declined to comment further, pending
investigation.

The charge of maintaining a vehicle for drug sales is commonly applied
when a suspect uses a motor vehicle to store or deal drugs. Law
enforcement agencies often seize such vehicles and sell them to raise
money for local schools, according to James Woodall, district attorney
for Orange and Chatham counties.

Britt, who responded to the scene, said he had never charged anyone
with maintaining a bicycle to sell drugs.

"That just doesn't happen very often," police spokeswoman Jane Cousins
said.