ALLIANCE: There’s nothing wrong with asking a police officer for a little help.
But when it comes to finding your lost marijuana? Well, that’s a different story.
Alliance police posted a video on the department’s Facebook page last week showing an intoxicated, shirtless man asking Patrolman Seth Busche for help locating a little marijuana that he lost in his yard.
“I’m not going to lie. I lost a little bit of marijuana,” 42-year-old Dennis Wagner tells the officer while sitting on the steps outside his East Summit Street residence.
The conversation was captured on the patrolman’s body camera.
In the 49-second video, Busche responds that he doesn’t want any kids finding the drug and then he locates the marijuana laying in the grass around the side of the house.
Wagner asks if the officer could throw the drug back on the ground.
Wagner was charged with misdemeanor drug abuse. He pleaded not guilty Friday in Alliance Municipal Court, authorities said.
The encounter began when Busche came across Wagner stumbling along the road and the officer wanted to make sure he got home safe, police Capt. James Hilles said Sunday. Then, the conversation took place.
The video was posted on Facebook on Thursday. As of early Sunday afternoon, it had been viewed more than 62,000 times.
It also has sparked an online debate, with some people commenting that it was cruel to post the video and saying that Wagner has a problem with alcohol. He has a history of alcohol-related arrests, including for disorderly conduct and drunken-driving, according to Alliance Municipal Court records.
Hilles defended the video, saying it’s an example of the silly things that people say to police.
“We’re not trying to pick on him or anything like that,” he said. “It was supposed to be light-hearted.”
Wagner apparently didn’t appreciate the video or critical comments made about him online.
A telephone number couldn’t be found for him but he posted the following message Sunday on his Facebook page:
“Why does everybody have to post smart ass comments about me when they don’t know me,” he wrote.