By Benjy Egel
The Sacramento Bee
ANDERSON, Calif. — Crime doesn’t pay. If it did, maybe he would have bought a GPS.
A Redding resident is behind bars after allegedly illegally parking next to two uniformed police officers, then asking them how to get to the site of a planned drug deal.
Around 1:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, police say Chris Meng Lee parked his black BMW in front of a red-painted curb and fire hydrant near the intersection of Church and North streets in Anderson. The 40-year-old Redding man then walked over to two Anderson Police Department officers sitting in their squad cars and asked for directions to a mobile home park at the crossroads of two streets that don’t intersect, according to an Anderson Police Department media release.
The officers asked in return if they could search his car. He agreed. They found two bags containing about a pound-and-a-half of marijuana of Lee’s trunk and a loaded gun in the driver’s door pocket, according to the police report. As a convicted felon, he is barred from owning a firearm and live ammunition.
The police then asked and received permission from Lee to search his cell phone. Text messages between Lee and another phone number allegedly indicated he had been on his way to sell the pot before getting lost.
Lee was booked into Shasta County Jail on suspicion of possesssion of marijuana for sales, possession of a firearm by a felon, carrying a concealed loaded firearm in a vehicle and driving without a valid license.
“It should be noted that our officers are always willing to assist the motoring public with directions when they get lost, however we would encourage the public not to illegally park their vehicles and approach our officers in their parked vehicles,” the police department said in its media release. “Especially while illegally possessing loaded firearms and drugs.”
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