SOURCE TRACED FOR HALLOWEEN POT TREATS

Postal Worker Got Candy From Dead-letter Office

HERCULES -- Hercules police have cracked the case of the pot-stuffed
Snickers bars that were unwittingly handed out on Halloween.

It turns out that the treats were the product of a failed and undetected
attempt to mail 5 ounces of marijuana to someone in San Francisco, said
Hercules Police Chief Mike Tye.

"Somebody tried to mail it and didn't have enough postage or the address
was wrong," he said.

Because the package, which contained four bags of Snickers bars destined
for San Francisco, did not have a return address, it landed in the
dead-letter office -- where it was taken by a postal employee who planned
to hand the candies out to trick-or-treaters.

"A lot of their dead mail, stuff that's nonperishable, is given away to
charity," Tye said. "(The employee) picked up the candy along with a bunch
of canned goods. He took the other items to a church but kept the candy."

The man, who police declined to identify because he has been cleared of any
wrongdoing, handed out 9 or 10 of the fun-size candy bars, each of which
was stuffed with half an ounce of pot worth up to $250.

"It was packed pretty tight and stuffed in there," Tye said. "They did a
pretty good job."

Postal inspectors have taken over the investigation and are working with
Hercules police, but Tye said an arrest is unlikely.

"We haven't been able to track back where it came from, nor do we think we
ever will," he said. "Who knows where it was going."