A Leesburg man who failed to stop behind the painted white stop bar at a red light was arrested after cocaine was found in his vehicle.
A Tavares police officer was stationed in the parking lot of Lake Tire and Auto, 812 W. Burleigh Blvd., at around 10:30 p.m. Monday when he observed a gold Toyota pickup truck advance past the stop bar before coming to a complete stop and turning right on red from Lakeshore Boulevard onto Burleigh.
The officer conducted a traffic stop and spoke with the driver – Larry Gene Crawford, 59, of 3393 Grant Ave. – who didn’t seem to understand why he was pulled over. The officer explained though he may have stopped at the light, Crawford did not come to a complete stop behind the white stop bar that’s painted on the ground. Crawford still didn’t seem to agree with the reason, according to the police report.
The officer asked Crawford if there was anything illegal in the vehicle and he replied there was not. The officer asked for consent to search the truck and Crawford said no, so a K9 unit was called in. The dog conducted an open-air search and gave a positive alert for the presence of narcotics, the report said.
The officer searched the vehicle and found a white substance on the passenger side floorboard. It had a flaky texture and was compressed into a small rectangle that resembled a pill. The substance field-tested positive for the presence of cocaine, according to the report.
Crawford was arrested and taken to the Lake County Jail, where he was released Tuesday on $2,000 bond. He’s due to appear in Lake County Court at 8:30 a.m. May 23.
