KENSINGTON — Police are investigating whether crystals in a small plastic baggie found on the ground at E. Fourth Street and Caton Avenue last week are methamphetamine, they said.
An officer at the NYPD's 66th Precinct confirmed Friday that the crystals were being tested at a lab but said results weren't available yet. He added that the discovery was a "rarity" in the 66th Precinct.
The tiny pouch stuffed with clear shards was found by local resident Jack Wallace on his well-tended block just after dropping his son off at school on Wednesday morning, he said.
Wallace, who also found another empty baggie nearby, called the 66th Precinct and two officers responded immediately, he said.
The incident shook up Wallace, who grew up in Kensington and is now raising his 10-year-old son in the neighborhood.
"I love my neighborhood and I don't want to see it go back to what it was in the 80s and 90s, with heroin and crack cocaine," Wallace said. He recalled that a couple of people he knew growing up died of drug overdoses, and he feared a return to those darker times.
Major crimes in the 66th Precinct have dropped nearly 80 percent over the past two decades, according to NYPD statistics.
Wallace posted a photo of the baggies on a neighborhood Facebook page and neighbors thanked him for alerting the police. "Wow I'm in shock my child goes to school there and I would be horrified for her or any child to have seen this. Thanks for sharing this,” one woman wrote.
Another wrote to say that her daughter had found an empty small plastic baggie recently but that she assumed it formerly contained weed.
"The thing that bothered me was seeing this in the street," Wallace said. "My kid plays out there I had to explain to my 10-year-old what meth looks like and what this drug does to people. That is a very dangerous drug."
