POLICE BEAT

Drug charges were filed against a Benton man after police received a report of a reckless driver on Edison Avenue on March 15.

Officer Justin Stuart found a Chevrolet Blazer S-10 parked at Sav-A-Lot. The driver came out and drove off very slowly. The license plate matched the complainant's information.

The suspect made an improper lane change at Edison and Neeley Street, and the officer stopped the truck.

Toby Barker said he had not been paying attention. As he walked back to his car, Stuart saw items "similar to those common with portable methamphetamine labs (plastic bottles, solvent containers, canisters of propane or fuel.)

Barker was initially cited for improper left turn. He consented to a vehicle search, and officers found a plastic bag with suspected marijuana; rolling papers; a silver spoon with a bent handle, with a small amount of cotton stuck on the spoon; a salt and pepper shaker with a white substance in the "salt" side; a prescription bottle with some 33 Xanax pills and a syringe with a cap.

Officers also found 20 syringes in the engine compartment. The syringes had been inside a nylon case in a brown jersey glove. Barker's cane also had a switch concealing a 24-inch blade.

Barker was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, possession of drug paraphernalia and carrying a concealed weapon. All charges are class A misdemeanors.

He was taken to Saline County jail.

A traffic stop for a burned-out licenseplate bulb led to drug charges on a Bryant man on March 13.

Officer Hunter Begoon smelled the faint odor of burnt marijuana when the approached the Geo Prism on Stewart Street in Benton.

The driver, Samuel Robinson, 25, of North Street, admitted to having a marijuana cigarette, and was charged with possession of a controlled substance. A passenger wasn't charged.

Bridget McAdoo, 24, of Banner Street, was cited for criminal mischief and picked up on Saline County warrants after Benton police found a Pontiac Grand Am parked on Banner Street with all its windows broken.

The car's owner, a North Little Rock man, said McAdoo, his girlfriend, was mad at him for having another girlfriend.

Numerous items were reportedly taken from a Mabelvale home on March 12. The complainant told Saline County Sheriff's Office it was a daytime break-in.

Items taken were a Gateway laptop computer, two printers, a laptop bag, a Bluetooth headset, an Apple iPod, a Dyson vacuum cleaner, a carpet cleaner, a 32-inch Sony flat-panel television, a DVD recorder, a "ducks" wall painting, two Bose speakers, jewelry, numerous DVDs and compact disks and a Palm Pilot. Loss: $13,285.

A bullet entered his house at 8:05 a.m. March 18, an Athens Street man told Benton police. The bullet broke glass on his china cabinet and ricocheted. The complainant said he didn't hear a shot. Neighbors told police they didn't see or hear anything.

Two red metal gasoline cans were reportedly stolen from a boat parked on North Shady Lane in Benton. It was reported March 15, but it's unknown when the tanks were actually taken.