| Photo: Brad Hunter/The Daily Telegraph |
| Great-grandmother Noelene Edwards, 74, pictured above with her dog Digger, was charged after a police dog allegedly detected marijuana in her handbag. |
A great-grandmother in Sydney, Australia, has been arrested by police as a drug dealer.
Noelene Edwards, 74, said she’s just a grieving widow, struggling with the recent loss of her husband, reports Clementine Cuneo at The Daily Telegraph.
The Surry Hills woman said she had been on her way into the city to pay for her husband’s funeral on Tuesday when a police dog allegedly detected that she was carrying cannabis.
Police claim a search of Mrs. Edwards’ handbag turned up 40 bags containing marijuana. (No word on how much pot was in each of the “40 bags.”)
The great-grandmother was taken to a nearby police station, then a dozen officers ransacked her home and allegedly discovered bags of various sizes, along with another small stash of pot.
Mrs. Edwards, grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of six, was charged with possession and supply of “prohibited drugs.” She was granted bail and will face court in July.
But the great-grandmother said on Wednesday that she had no idea how all that weed allegedly ended up in her handbag.
“I was walking along George Street in the city and I saw the dog but I just stepped aside so I didn’t trip over it,” Mrs. Edwards said. “Next thing I am being surrounded by all these police and then they put me in the back of a police wagon.”
Each time she goes to do grocery shopping or chores, Mrs. Edwards said she takes “whichever bag I can find.”
“I always make sure I have my bus fare in one pocket, and my wallet in the other,” she said. “And then I grab a handbag from the pile over there so I have something to put my shopping in,” she said.
When police arrested Mrs. Edwards on George Street, she was on her way into the city to make the last payment on the funeral for her husband of 35 years.
“Reginald died five weeks ago, and I’m just so lonely without him,” she said. “We buried his ashes in the garden last weekend; that’s all that has been on my mind.”
Police claim they were “conducting a drug operation” around Central Railway Station when the drug-detecting dog allegedly got a positive reading from the old woman.
“It shows that the drug detection dogs don’t discriminate on what people look like, or how old they are,” crowed a strangely gleeful Inspector Mark Christie.
