ABANDONED KITTEN LEADS OFFICERS TO DRUGS

Warwick, Ga.-- An abandoned kitten gave Warwick police officers more
assistance than they could offer a couple of stranded motorists.

The kitten pointed officers right to a cigar box containing 14 ounces
of powder cocaine soon after they had stopped to help two men whose
car had broken down early Wednesday near Warwick, 20 miles northeast
of Albany.

"I was standing there talking to them and I heard this cat meowing,"
Lt. Richard Bullard said. "I shined my flashlight around, and she was
sitting on top of this box. So I picked it up."

Inside, Bullard found cocaine with a street value of
$40,600.

"They'd taken it out of the vehicle and set it on the dirt," said
Worth County Sheriff Freddie Tompkins.

Tompkins said police also confiscated $1,300 and a small amount of
additional cocaine, traces of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia
from the car's trunk.

"The whole time they denied it was theirs," Bullard
said.

Albany residents Johnathan Greene, 26, and Joseph Frazier, 24, were
both charged with one count of trafficking cocaine.

Officers named the kitten Kilo, the drug lingo term for large packages
of cocaine measured out for shipping. And Kilo has found a new home.

Bullard said he couldn't resist taking in the kitten that has now
become the station's unofficial mascot-though not a substitute for a
drug dog.

Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady