By Joe Johnson
The manager of a motel in west Athens Friday morning reported a suspicious car in the parking lot and an investigation resulted in the arrest of an occupant of the vehicle on felony drug charges, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
The manager of Howard Johnson Inn on West Broad Street called police at about 3:30 a.m. to report an occupied car had been parked outside for about 20 minutes, and upon the arrival of police officers the lone occupant, identified in the report as 39-year-old Taniqua Raynell Hardy of Winterville, told the officers she had just returned from dropping off a friend.
While speaking to Hardy, the report notes, an officer saw unspecified drug paraphernalia on the driver’s seat, at which time the woman was detained and a search of the car found a bag containing less than a gram of heroin, and three bags of methamphetamine with a total weight of 8.4 grams, according to the police report.
Hardy reportedly explained that her friend dropped the drugs into her purse.
Hardy was booked into the county jail on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of heroin, and possession of drug-related objects.
As of Saturday afternoon, she remained jailed in lieu of a $50 bond.