Woman goes seashell hunting on Bolivar peninsula, finds $33K worth of cocaine instead
Leitha Garrett Ingram said she stumbled upon a brick of cocaine with a street value of $33,000 while she was visiting Bolivar beach July 9.
Keep clicking through this gallery to see the strange items found on Texas beaches.
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Leitha Garrett Ingram said she stumbled upon a brick of cocaine with a street value of $33,000 while she was visiting Bolivar beach July 9.
Keep clicking through this gallery to see the strange items
more
Photo: Courtesy Leitha Garrett Ingram
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Leitha Garrett Ingram said she stumbled upon a brick of cocaine with a street value of $33,000 while she was visiting Bolivar beach July 9.
Keep clicking through this gallery to see the strange items found on Texas beaches.
less
Leitha Garrett Ingram said she stumbled upon a brick of cocaine with a street value of $33,000 while she was visiting Bolivar beach July 9.
Keep clicking through this gallery to see the strange items
more
Photo: Courtesy Leitha Garrett Ingram
When the tide is just right, Leitha Garrett Ingram of Tarkington Prairie likes to spend her time scouring the beaches of the Bolivar Peninsula for treasures that wash up on shore.
Ingram typically keeps an eye out for things such as seashells and sea glass, but an unusual package caught her eye when she was driving along the beach with a friend July 9.
“I slammed on my breaks and my friend said ‘What do you see?’ and I said, ‘I think I see a brick of cocaine!’” Ingram said.
Ingram had a gut feeling she was right – and she was.
Worried police would not be able to locate the package if she left it, Ingram decided to carefully pick up the brick and drive to where she had cell service and call the Galveston County Sheriff’s office.
“I knew if I left it there it would be impossible to pin point where to find it,” Ingram said. “The only thing I could do at that point was to be very careful and pick it up and throw it in the back of my truck.”
Officials with the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office met Ingram at a central location and confirmed the package was cocaine with a street value of $33,000.
Click through the photos above for a look at unusual items found on Texas beaches so far this year.
REEL FINDS: Here’s what you’ll catch in Houston’s Buffalo Bayou
“He [the officer] said it could have come from Florida, Cuba, somewhere in the Caribbean,” Ingram said. “It even could have come from ColumbiaMexicothere’s no telling.”
A drug test the officer completed showed the cocaine was not pure; it had been either cut with another substance or was contaminated with saltwater. Officers told Ingram she handled the situation perfectly and that if the cocaine had been laced with the dangerous drug Fentanyl, she could have ultimately died from touching it.
“It could have absorbed just through my fingers and made me very sickit could kill somebody just by handling it.” Ingram said. “Officers have gotten sick just by handling the bricks.”
Ingram said despite the close call, she was excited to have made the discovery.
“I was kind of geeking out over it because my dad was a deputy constable when I was little,” Ingram said. “And the likelihood of that happening in the area that I found it is so slim to none.”
RELATED: Another load of drugs washes onto Galveston beaches this week
Ingram said officers told her drugs washing up on shore are not common, but cases have been reported in the past. In 2015, bags and bricks of cocaine were found along the Galveston coastline twice, and another 25 bricks of cocaine were found in Galveston in 2011.
According to the Texas General Land Office, unusual items repeatedly wash up on Texas beaches. Volunteers with the Texas GLO’s Adopt-A-Beach clean up program have found oddities such as bottles of urine, street signs and jars of marijuana on Texas beaches just this spring alone.
Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | [email protected] | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message
