BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — One concerned citizen was in the right place at the right time when four elementary students in Bakersfield, California, approached her with an odd question Friday after school.
“They asked me if marijuana was illegal. I told them yes,” Erica De La Rosa said.
The boys showed De La Rosa a cardboard box full of marijuana they found down the street from McAuliffe Elementary. De LaRosa said she called 911.
“They told me it would be hours before an officer would come out and asked if I could bring it down to the station,” De LaRosa told Nexstar’s KGET.
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De LaRosa said she brought the box with the bag of pot, oven bags, a bag sealer, a weight scale, and a roll full of labels saying “Warning: opening this package will cause extreme happiness” to Bakersfield police headquarters on Truxtun Avenue. But, De LaRosa was told the lobby was closed and was removed by two officers.
“The fact that I told them I have a trunk full of drugs in my car right outside the police station … Why that wasn’t concerning to them? I don’t know.”
That’s when the disgruntled De LaRosa brought the situation and her trunk full of pot to KGET. De LaRosa said the police even made her do the leg work and to try and get contact info from the four boys who were 10 years old.
“One ran away. Two of the children gave me their names and their phone numbers, and the third child only gave me his name.”
It doesn’t end there.
De LaRosa left KGET after an interview and brought the drugs back to BPD. She said was told there were 33 emergencies and she was turned away again.
“When it comes to drugs and children, that needs to be taken seriously,” De La Rosa said.
More than 19 hours after the pot was found, De La Rosa finally got a knock at the door from an officer, but he told her to throw away the evidence.
“It wasn’t until about 11 a.m. Saturday morning [when] finally, an officer show[ed] up at my door, took pictures of everything in the box, confiscated the marijuana, and then told me to dispose of the rest of the box,” she said.
The Bakersfield Police Department has not provided comment on the incident.
Adults aged 21 and over can legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis in California, but a state license is required to sell it.
