Police investigating a report of a man sleeping in a car early today found a meth lab brewing and a fake gun inside the vehicle.
Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Dept. deputies were called just before 5 a.m. today to the 11900 block of North Fuzzy Bear Road on a report of a vehicle parked there with a man sleeping inside. Officers arrived to find a tan Pontiac Sunfire with indeed a man asleep in the driver’s seat, a police incident report said.
The man awoke as Deputy Travis Shively walked up to the coupe, the report said. As Shively scanned the vehicle with his light, he spotted the handle of a presumed firearm in the rear seat, and a one-pot meth lab brewing in the passenger seat, the report said.
Keith Barton Baker, 37, of Kimmel, was immediately placed under arrest as additional units, including the Kosciusko County Drug Task Force, were called in. The Indiana State Police Meth Lab team was also called in to work the scene.
Medics were also called in to look Baker over, due to the time he was exposed to the lab. Shively wrote in his report that Baker had parked the car the evening before to use available Wi-Fi.
As of this morning, Baker was still in Kosciusko County Hospital undergoing treatment for the exposure. He is awaiting charges, police said.
