Florida man wearing 'No, seriously, I have drugs' T-shirt arrested for drug possession


Oddly, it wasn't the T-shirt that led to John Balmer's arrest at a Kmart in Hudson, Florida. But it probably didn't help.
When a Pasco County sheriff's deputy walked into the store on Monday, he saw Balmer, 50, try (unsuccessfully) to pass a "bag of green leafy substance" to the shopper in line behind him, according to the arrest report. Balmer then paid for his items, allegedly leaving a bag on the ground; when a clerk alerted the deputies, they found marijuana and methamphetamine in the bag. Here's his arrest photo, from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office Facebook page:
The sheriff's office captioned the photo: "Pay close attention to the T-shirt." Balmer would have been wise to heed that advice before he left his house, but as David Moye notes at The Huffington Post, this isn't the first case of drug arrestees tempting fate with their shirts: In November, a Kentucky woman was arrested for meth possession wearing a "I love crystal meth" T-shirt, and a month earlier, another Florida man was busted for carrying a bag of pot with a Monopoly-inspired "Go Directly to Jail" shirt. The cops, I'm sure, are much obliged.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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