Quinn Sullivan

Quinn Sullivan saw a man drop a McDonald's Chicken McNuggets carton and run from him Sunday night, he knew whatever the box contained probably wasn't destined for a dip in a tasty sauce. Sullivan was right. The 10-piece McNuggets box contained more than an ounce of marijuana, neatly packed to go. By the end of the night, police had arrested three city residents and a suspected drug dealer, seized four more ounces of marijuana and found evidence that more of the stuff was being grown in a North Elm Street apartment.

Pretty good police work for an incident that began as a suspicious-persons stop. The bust went down like this: About halfway through his evening shift, Sullivan spotted three people sitting in a car with its engine running in an empty parking lot near 164 N. Elm St. Thinking the group looked a bit shady, Sullivan stopped to interview them, and was told the three were "waiting for someone who was at a gas station and who didn't have a car, but they were nowhere near a gas station," Sullivan said. The box was packed full with more than an ounce of marijuana.

When Sullivan looked up, he saw a man police identified as Glenn M. Brandner, 19, of 167 French St., walking out of an apartment building across the street from the parking lot holding a Chicken McNuggets box. When Brandner saw the officer interviewing his friends, he dropped the box like a scalding coffee and "immediately ran inside" the apartment building, Sullivan said "I kind of figured something was in it because he had dropped it when he saw me," Sullivan said. Once he got Brandner back outside, "I asked him if he had anything illegal on him and he just handed me the box." The nearest McDonald's, at 693 Main St., is a bit of a walk — about a half mile — from the apartment, which also happens to be about a half mile from Forbes Elementary School, in the opposite direction.