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Milton firefighters look on as a member from the Vermont State Police Clandestine Lab Enforcement Team test a substance for materials to manufacture methamphetamine at a Milton residence Sunday afternoon. The substances were deemed non-hazardous. (Photo by Courtney Lamdin)
Vermont State Police confirmed Sunday a suspicious bottle that sparked a daylong investigation into a possible clandestine drug lab turned out to be benign.
Milton police responded to the rental home at 115 River St. just before 11:30 a.m. June 4 after the property’s landlord, John Sharrow, found a Gatorade bottle with tubing coming from both ends, along with several chemicals in the home.
An assessment team from VSP’s Clandestine Lab Enforcement Team responded and determined the substances were not used to manufacture methamphetamine, a process that uses highly explosive chemicals.
With support from Milton Fire Department, the team tested for hydrogen chloride gas, or HCl, found in the final stages of meth production, according to Detective Sgt. Shawn Loan, member of the clan lab team.
“Our concern is what the mixture in the bottle is, and it doesn’t show us an HCl generator,” he said. “It’s an unknown, but it’s not anything that would lead us to believe it’s a lab.”
Loan said the items inside the residence were regular household chemicals.
Sharrow, who lives next door, was cleaning out the garage when he found the bottle among bags of garbage. He was concerned since he’d earlier found acetone camping fuel, a common ingredient in cooking meth.
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Milton resident John Sharrow called police after finding this suspicious bottle at his rental property on River Street. (VSP photo)
“They never went camping,” he said, noting the tenants – whom he evicted for not paying rent just last week – are known to police. “Knowing them … it didn’t match.”
The scene drew considerable public interest since the house is located on Milton’s Route 7, the main thoroughfare in town.
Milton police quarantined the area with crime scene tape and asked the public to keep their distance until it was deemed safe.
Neighbor Ron Stewart, a River St. homeowner for 17 years, watched the activity from his lawn, where he displayed a canoe for sale.
Smoking a cigar, he watched traffic and rubberneckers, joking, “If nothing else, maybe I’ll get some hits on the canoe.”
Stewart said he was concerned since he knew the former tenant has a criminal past.
“Because it was taped off and all that, my suspicions were a meth lab,” he said, noting he has no sympathy for drug dealers since his brother died of an overdose 14 years ago.
Still, Stewart said, he never noticed anything suspicious across the street.
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Emergency responders confer at the scene. (Photo by Courtney Lamdin)
A man, woman and two children lived at the house, Sharrow said.
Milton Detective Cpl. Frank Scalise said he planned to follow up with the former tenants and get their take on the device, which Loan suggested might be used to bleed brake lines.
Scalise didn’t expect any criminal charges to result. He urged the public to be aware that common household items – including lithium batteries, lye products like Drano, first aid cold packs and coffee filters – can be used to produce meth.
Anyone who notices suspicious activity, such as people buying or stealing the items, should call Milton police at 893-2424.
As the team packed up to leave, Sharrow helped unwind the yellow tape from the white picket fence. Next to it lay his “For Rent” sign, which he took down during the incident.
“With all these cops here,” he said, “I thought, ‘This is not good marketing.’”
