Man Held for 90 Days After Cops Confuse Drywall for Coke

'I know for a fact it’s drywall because I’m a handyman'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2017 1:48 PM CDT
Man Held for 90 Days After Cops Confuse Drywall for Coke
Stock image.   (Getty Images/yvdavyd)

A Florida handyman was held in jail for three months because police mistook drywall powder for cocaine, WFTV reports. Karlos Cashe was pulled over in March in Oviedo for driving with his headlights off. An officer noticed white powder on Cashe's seats and floorboards, and officials say a field test identified the powder as cocaine. “I know for a fact it’s drywall because I’m a handyman," Cashe says he repeatedly told officers at the scene. But another substance in his car tested positive as marijuana—and Cashe was on probation at the time for marijuana and cocaine charges from 2015—so he was tossed in jail and denied bond.

Last week, after 90 or so days, Cashe was released from jail when lab tests revealed none of the substances in his car were drugs. He says he's going public to get police to be more careful in the future. “I don’t want this to happen to anybody else," he says. (More cocaine stories.)

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