Man Tried To Swap Drugs For Fried Pickles

JANUARY 19--The Buffalo Wild Wings had closed late Sunday when Justin Carpenter pulled up to the Lawrence, Indiana restaurant around midnight looking for food.

Fried pickles, to be exact.

In an ill-advised bid to get the kitchen reopened, Carpenter, 25, proposed a barter exchange to B Dubs employees, two of whom were minors. As alleged by police, Carpenter “offered drugs to Buffalo Wild Wings workers in exchange for fried pickles.”

Carpenter--who was wearing an ankle monitor as a result of a prior drug arrest--offered marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy, and vape cartridges containing THC, according to workers interviewed by cops. Carpenter, accompanied by a male friend, reportedly declared, “If you make us some fried pickles, I’ll make it worth it.”

Employees did not agree to the drugs-for-pickles trade and Carpenter departed the Buffalo Wild Wings. Before leaving, though, investigators charge that Carpenter left three small bags of marijuana on the restaurant’s front counter, and told a manager, “Give those bags to the kids.”

Police subsequently tracked Carpenter’s vehicle to a nearby Speedway gas station, where he was taken into custody. Post-arrest searches of Carpenter and his car turned up marijuana; cocaine; oxycodone; Xanax; THC cartridges; and scales containing a white powder.

Carpenter (seen at left) was arrested on multiple felony and misdemeanor narcotics charges and booked into the county jail. According to court records, he is also a defendant in two separate drug cases filed last year (which resulted in pretrial service officials outfitting him with a GPS ankle monitor).

If Carpenter secures his release from custody, a judge has ordered him to have no contact with the Buffalo Wild Wings or its employees.

As for future obtainment of fried pickles in the vicinity of the Indianapolis suburb, Yelp has some suggestions. (4 pages)