A Villages woman and her man friend found themselves behind bars Sunday night on drug charges after a traffic stop for a burned-out headlight.
A Marion County sheriff’s deputy was in the parking lot of Lake Weir High School when he spotted a gray Chrysler Sebring traveling east on S.E. Sunset Harbor Road with an inoperable headlight on the driver’s side of the vehicle. He got behind the vehicle to make a traffic stop and reported seeing two small plastic baggies being tossed out the passenger-side window, a sheriff’s office report states.
After stopping the vehicle, the deputy walked about 50 feet and found two clear baggies in the roadway. One contained a clear crystal-like substance that the deputy suspected to be methamphetamine. He then requested another deputy to back him up, the report says.
Deputies made contact with the vehicle’s driver, 51-year-old Valerie Ann Krantz, who lives in Villa De La Vista West in The Villages. Deputies observed that the passenger, 31-year-old Shane Alan Mastic, wasn’t wearing his seat belt. They asked him to step out of the vehicle and he was placed in handcuffs, the report says.
A deputy asked Krantz if she saw Mastic throw anything out the window and she said she did not. The deputy then asked her to step out of the vehicle and noticed a pack of rolling papers on the driver’s seat where she had been sitting. The deputy opened the papers and located a cigarette containing a green leafy substance that he suspected to be marijuana, while another deputy found a clear glass pipe with white residue on it in a plastic grocery bag next to the gear shift, the report says.
Deputies field-tested the cigarette and it tested positive for marijuana. They also tested the substance in the baggie and the residue on the pipe and both came back positive for methamphetamine, the report says.
After being read her rights, Krantz decline to make any statements. Mastic denied throwing the baggies out the window but claimed he did see a plastic bag “fly out from underneath the windshield wiper blade.” He also admitted to using marijuana and methamphetamine, the report says.
Both Krantz and Mastic were placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail. A deputy searched Krantz’s purse for any contraband and found a gum wrapper that contained a small piece of a green leafy substance that tested positive for marijuana. The deputy asked Krantz if she had anything else on her and she admitted to having a container inside her pants used to store marijuana. The deputy then retrieved the container and located a stem and a small amount of a green leafy substance that also tested positive for marijuana, the report says.
Krantz, who lives at 404 Hildalgo Drive in The Villages, was charged with possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams and possession and/or use of drug equipment. She was being held on $2,000 bond and is due in court Nov. 17 at 8:30 a.m.
Mastic, who lives at 16875 S.E. 101 Court Rd. in Summerfield, was charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and possession and/or use of drug equipment. He was being held on $3,000 bond and is due court Oct. 13 at 9 a.m.
