Police: Pot in son’s Elmo bag gets dad busted

By Peter Mucha
Inquirer Staff Writer

Don't expect Sesame Street to ever come out with anything labeled "Smoke Me Elmo."
But that was the a Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV online headline after a Southwestern Pennsylvania man was arrested for allegedly showing up at an elementary school to retrieve nearly four ounces of marijuana left in his son's Elmo backpack.

"It was something dumb," Ronald Washington, 33, told the troopers who took him into custody yesterday, according to police.
Officials at Menallen Elementary School in Uniontown, Fayette County, became suspicious after Washington called to ask if his son had arrived, because something was accidentally left in the kindergartner's backpack.
Inside the blue bag were two other bags - plastic baggies containing 105 grams of marijuana - along with the 6-year-old boy's homework, police said.

State police were waiting when Washington showed up that morning.
"Upon police arrival, a very strong marijuana odor was being emitted from the bookbag," according to a news release.
"I don't think it was his and that's the truth. It's a big misunderstanding," Washington's sister, Carol Patterson, told KDKA-TV of Pittsburgh.
"I'm taken back by it," she said. "I believe it was a mistake. He's raising two kids by himself and he does pretty well as a father, single parent. So I think it was a mistake."
Washington was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver, and disorderly conduct.
He was being held at Fayette County Jail after failing to post the $100,000 cash bail.
The district judge said the high bail was justified because the drugs were found at a school, according to KDKA-TV.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Wednesday in Uniontown.