You won't believe what I found when cleaning our new for us car. Advice on what to do.

[HeatherLynn]

So my allergies have been really really bad the past few weeks. Mostly during and after driving the car. So I figured the car was the source and went to scrub it down today with vinegar water today and really air it out. Everything opened up. Car was clean when we bought it and no noticable smell so I did mild wipe down then. Well in cleaning I hit the ashtray which was clean with 2 exceptions. One was a penny which caused me to pull the whole thing out to get the thing out and the other was stuck to the back of the tray. it was a partially smoked joint. ( I think) My dad says its one. My husband agreed. Brown paper wrapper which is not anything until they opened the thing up at which point my dad ( ex smoker) said that is not tobacco. This would make sense because the one time i was exposed to someone smoking one I started wheezing like mad and threw up. My allergies have been so bad I was ready to go see a specialist.

So the vents all got cleaned. All the upholstery and leather got several wipe downs. The cloth floor mats are being washed and I am considering a carpet cleaner for the floorboards. The car is still airing out. My husband is changing the air filter tomorrow. The dirty discovery is safely burned to nothingness. I want to call this guy up and give him what for though. He is a teacher in a city near us. I had no idea I should have been thinking to look for this kind of thing. What if someone else had found this? I am seriously ticked off. If I had known I would not have bought the car because honestly I already knew how I reacted. Being around one friend who did this was enough for me. Not even Pregnancy made me hurl like that. It could have turned into possession. I have 4 kids for pities sake. What if one had found it. I have a 2 year old where everything goes in her mouth for pities sake. Thats right sit there and say how cute she is while selling me your little druggie car. I don't care if they do it, just don't pass it on. I am wicked angry right now. This guy has my Irish up big time.

Edited to add: Man if I could drive the car right now I would probably go for a little visit and deck someone. I might have my husband give the guy a call. He is less likely to strangle someone than I am.

 

[satay]

Hmmm not sure what to say to this one. Perhaps the past owner is/ was a druggie. Perhaps someone else left it in there. I am not sure confronting the past owner would do you any good unless you think he would admit he put it in there. I would just do as you have done clean it out and move on. I do understand your annoyance at it being in the car thats for sure especially as you say you could have been done for possession or your child could have found it..

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I think perhaps you need to take a deep breath and take a day to think before proceeding with anything. What really would be the point in calling him? What would you gain? I think it was a mistake and maybe he didn't clean out the car well enough. If your allergies are as bad as you say then you would have likely needed to clean out a used car no matter what.

If smoking of any kind causes that much trouble for you then perhaps make that a requirement the next time you purchase a vehicle. There are lots of different things people smoke so would knows for sure what it was.

Even if it was weed, getting caught with a little weed in Kentucky is only a class B misdemeanor so 1 half smoked joint would not have resulted in any problems for you and I doubt your children are ever unsupervised in the car. If they are, then you have bigger things to worry about. If they had somehow eaten it, it is nontoxic and only has effects when heated so nothing would have happened. Honestly, they would probably be worse off having eaten the penny.

Stop and think logically about the situation. How do you benefit from being so upset? It is just extra stress that doesn't get you anywhere. I would just laugh about it and move on.

 

[cassie]

You really have no way of knowing who put it there. It could have been the former owner. It could have been someone who borrowed the car. It could have been a friend, acquaintance, or relative. To accuse anyone would be, as the lawyers say, assuming facts not in evidence. Plus you really don't know what it is/was. It may have been straight marijuana. It may have been something else. Since marajuana is used, quite effectively I might add, for combatting the nausea from chemotherapy, I wouldn't think it would make you sick. So it may not have been just weed.

It might not hurt to tell the former owner what you found, but not in an accusatory way. So calm down and take a deep breath before you contact him/her. Keep in mind you don't know if he had any knowlege of it, or responsibility for it, at all. For all you know it could have been there before the former owner even acquired the vehicle.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I calmed down. I was just in a temper for a little bit. My husband pointed out the guy has teens too and their friends. I am still upset the kids could have found it. I am a bit over protective to say the least but I calmed down a good bit before my husband even got home. I think it was the surprise of it, not what I expected to find, like ever. More than likely my husband will shoot a friendly little email or stop buy the guys music store and just casually mention in. He may say sorry, thought I got all those out or he might end up having a talk with some kids. Either way I am letting my husband deal with it. It really isn't worth the stress. its done and over. The good news is my car is really clean and smelling very fresh.

 

[patty12]

I think you are acting a little over board, so what does it matter what some one did in the car in the past and you can not know WHO did the deed. Why not just forget the whole matter.

 

[redhen]

Its common sense patty..
If something ever happened..she got pulled over by a cop..and opened that tray for something and a joint falls out..
If she ever got in an accident and they find the joint in the car...
If one of her children found that joint?
Yeah...think about it for a minute.. all crap that could be put upon HER because of some dirt bag druggie leaving his drugs lying around...

 

[dewey]

My best girlfriend was sidelined while her vehicle was practically dismantled during a random border search. Of course her vehicle passed the search just fine, but contraband left behind by a previous driver would be a hard sell to authorities.

 

[HeatherLynn]

The reasons listed above were exactly why I was so upset. If my daughter had found it and put in her mouth I don't know what that would do to her and honestly if it went badly I would be blamed, arrested and my children taken from me. It could harm my child or have them taken from me which is why i reacted strongly.It can happen. I have a nephew that got in HUGE legal trouble because a joint was found in his truck. They didn't care that he had to share that truck with another guy, or that the guy had just been fired for a failed drug test. He still had to get bailed out. It was bad.

I calmed down after my husband did a HUGE check on the car and said he would do even more and help get it super cleaned up so I would not have breathing issues anymore. He took over the entire situation and all was good after. It was an initial upset because there could have been repercussions.

 

[Jenny1]

I would say talk to the guy. Lets assume his kid drove the car and left it there. I would want to know. I really would. Just email him and tell him that you found it and wondered if he was aware of it. That way he can talk to his kid if he needs to.