COUPLE'S SUV GETS STUCK IN TRAFFICKING JAM

They tried getting some fresh air, but the windows would go down only halfway.

So the couple took their Ford Expedition to a Carol Stream dealership on
Thursday, figuring the SUV they had bought days earlier from a rental
company had a mechanical glitch.

But the windows weren't the problem -- it was the marijuana stuffed inside
the doors.

After fishing out a 2-pound bag from the passenger-side door, mechanics
called police and then peeled back the plastic side panels and foam seats.
By the time the couple returned hours later to reclaim the vehicle,
investigators had found 49.3 pounds of pot in their SUV, apparently stashed
there by drug traffickers who abandoned their booty before delivery could
be made.

"They were shocked," said Tony Renello, service director at Joe Cotton
Ford, where the couple had taken the vehicle. "The wife was pretty upset."

On Friday, the SUV sat in the dealership's service area, emptied of
marijuana and stripped clean by mechanics and investigators. The side
panels rested on the vehicle's roof, the stereo on the floorboard.

Employees at Joe Cotton Ford had already nicknamed the vehicle.

"We're calling it the 'Bob Marley Edition,'" said Kidd Altergott, the
dealership's truck manager.

Just who put the pot in the vehicle remains a mystery.

Officials said the Carol Stream couple, whose names were not released,
bought the 1999 SUV last Saturday from a Hertz rental lot in Naperville.

Hertz officials said they conducted a 72-point check on the Expedition
before selling it.

"All I can say is that it wasn't discovered," said Lauren Garvey, a
spokeswoman for Hertz. "The customers purchased the vehicle, so it wasn't
noticed by them either."

Garvey said her company will give the couple a more expensive 2000 Ford
Expedition as a replacement.

"We're doing everything we can to accommodate them," she said.

Hertz also is working with investigators to track down the culprits, but
experts said that could be difficult.

Special Agent Mark Warpness of the Drug Enforcement Administration in
Chicago said traffickers often use rented vehicles to transport drugs
because it is less of a risk. When traffickers are stopped with drugs in
their own car, their vehicle can be seized. When they are stopped in a
rental car, the car is returned to the rental company.

To provide a further layer of protection, drug dealers sometimes have
friends rent cars for them, so that when investigators search rental
records, they don't find the dealers' names.

Although it is unclear what happened with the Ford Expedition sold in
Naperville, Warpness, whose agency is not working on the case, said it is
likely that drug traffickers rented the vehicle intent on making a
delivery, loaded it with marijuana, then became scared that they were going
to get caught.

Under that scenario, Warpness said, the traffickers would simply leave the
SUV on the side of the road and let police return it to the rental agency.

"The best thing I can tell you is it has happened before and it will
probably happen again," Warpness said. "The thinking is, it's better to
abandon the load and walk away than to be arrested."

Even with a haul as large as this one.

Police said the marijuana is worth about $500 a pound, meaning the pot
found Thursday was worth about $25,000 -- roughly equal to the vehicle itself.

Employees at Joe Cotton Ford said the drug traffickers did such a good job
of hiding the pot that there was no detectable odor.

Before sticking the drugs in hollowed-out car doors and under foam seats,
they wrapped the marijuana in large bundles layered with newspaper and
grease. The concoction was then covered with sticky tape and stashed away.
Bulky side-impact beams were removed to create room, and plastic side
panels skillfully replaced so that no one could tell. The grease masked the
strong pot smell, even after the bundles were removed.

Several of the packages were wrapped in San Diego newspapers dating to
March, but officials said it is not clear where or when the drugs were put
into the car.

"Who knows where it could have been?" said Jim Linane, deputy chief of the
Carol Stream Police Department, which is investigating the incident. "I
guess the question is, how long has (the marijuana] been in the vehicle and
how many people had rented it before it was purchased?"

The SUV, less than two years old, had about 30,000 miles on it.

Linane said his department has found drugs hidden in cars before, but it
usually finds the culprits close at hand.

"I don't know too many people who deal in drugs that leave it in vehicles
that are then sold," he said. "That is a little strange."

It was equally puzzling to the couple who bought it.

Renello said the family was originally upset, both at the thought of so
much marijuana being in their vehicle and at the sight of their new
Expedition torn to pieces.

But by Friday afternoon, they were in a much better mood, cheered that the
drugs were discovered so quickly, and under such innocent circumstances.

"It's the craziest thing that's happened to me in 30 years," Renello said.
"At least we were happy in having a share of pulling that junk off the
street and making something right."