Suspects' bad sense of direction helps land them in jail

Date published: 6/26/2007

BY KEITH EPPS

Two Maryland men were arrested Sunday after the story they gave regarding a large number of $1 bills in their car made a suspicious Stafford County deputy even more suspicious.

According to spokesman Bill Kennedy, Deputy John Wright stopped a car on Garrisonville Road near Stafford Marketplace about 4 p.m. because it had expired tags.

While talking to the driver, Kennedy said, Wright noticed that the passenger was sitting on a large stack of $1 bills and had numerous others scattered about the car.

Asked about the money, the men told Wright they'd won it in a poker game in Dale City and were heading back to Baltimore.

Because Stafford is south of Dale City and not on the way to Baltimore, Wright pulled the driver aside and inquired further, Kennedy said.

The driver finally admitted that the passenger had stolen the money from a machine in a bowling alley about 20 minutes south of Stafford.

Kennedy said the driver claimed the passenger also tried to take money from a machine at an adjacent movie theater, but was unsuccessful.

Confronted with the driver's confession, Kennedy said the passenger referred to the driver as "that snitching s.o.b."

Wright later searched the car and found drug residue, hypodermic needles, a lock pick set and other tools.

The passenger, Benjamin Hartland, 35, of Pasadena, Md., was charged with possession of illegal drugs, possession of stolen property, possession of paraphernalia, obstruction of justice and identity theft. He was placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail under no bond.

The driver, 36-year-old Michael Lambert of Brooklyn Park, Md., was charged with a single offense and jailed under a $1,000 bond.

Kennedy said Hartland had given Wright a phony name. He said the suspect later told the deputy he did so because he was wanted in Montgomery County, Md.

A check revealed that Hartland wasn't wanted.

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Date published: 6/26/2007