Crossville police were called to the McDonald’s on North Main Street yesterday, for a report of “suspicious” suspects in a red Yukon parked in a handicap space.

When they arrived, officers made contact with the driver, Chance Lee Howard of Crossville, who quickly turned away and appeared to be trying to hide something. Howard admitted there was drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. Then he said there was what he’d thought was meth between the driver’s seat and the center console. Howard said he’d purchased the substance from someone, thinking it was meth; and it was only when he attempted to melt it in a spoon that he realized it wasn’t real.

Police confiscated the fake drugs and the real paraphernalia and hauled Howard off to jail.