Message lands suspect in joint
By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
8/29/2006
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Pot-smoking invitation sent to cop in error, police say
BROKEN ARROW -- She should have just hung up.
Calling a wrong number caused a Morris woman some embarrassment -- not to mention jail time -- over the weekend.
Elizabeth Ann Burchfield, 19, was arrested after mistakenly text-messaging Broken Arrow police officer Phillip Short's cellular telephone while he was having lunch Friday afternoon, Major Mark Irwin said Monday.
The message allegedly asked Short -- or whom- ever Burchfield thought she was calling -- to join her for a smoke.
But not just any old kind of smoke.
"The text messager wanted to meet up with the officer to smoke the marijuana she had just purchased," Irwin said. "She had accidentally misdialed and reached the officer."
Short played along and returned a text message, asking his new friend to meet him somewhere and asking her to describe her vehicle.
The woman apparently did not wonder why her good friend was asking such a question.
"You'd think that," Irwin said. "But no, not in this case."
Instead, Short arrived early at the appointed meeting place and caught Burchfield running a red light in the 2006 Lexus she was driving,
Irwin alleged.
He said Short found about 13 grams -- or nearly half an ounce -- of mari- juana in the woman's purse.
Burchfield was booked into the Broken Arrow Jail and later released, reports show. She will face misdemeanor traffic and marijuana possession counts, Irwin said.
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Rod Walton 581-8457
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