A Washington family said they began suffering mysterious headaches and upset stomachs after their car was stolen and returned with high levels of methamphetamine and fentanyl without their knowledge.
Jake Culver of Pierce County said his family was initially relieved when police returned their 2002 Ford F350 pickup like new after it was stolen.
The father of two said he had driven the car several times until his 5- and 10-year-old sons started having an upset stomach and sleep disturbances, and Culver also had strange headaches, Fox 13 reports.
A friend of Culver’s wife recommended that they do a drug test on the car, and a subsequent examination revealed that the car had traces of methamphetamine that exceeded eight times the national safe exposure limits.
He also tested positive for twice the safe limit of fentanyl.
“My wife burst into tears when I told her the test results,” Culver told Fox. “My heart sank. If I had inhaled fentanyl or something, I mean, who knows where we would be right now.”
The Culvers’ 2002 Ford F350 pickup truck was stolen and later recovered by police. Pierce County Sheriff’s Department
Jake Culver said he was shocked and his wife sobbed when they learned their car tested positive for high levels of fentanyl and methamphetamine. Jake Culver/Facebook
Culver sharply criticized his insurance company for not drug testing his truck, which he said was a service he provided to recovered stolen vehicles.
“I hope that the people paid to help us overcome these problems actually do their job, and that, frankly, is more shocking than drug use and car theft,” he said.
“We can’t undo the exposure my family experienced, but hopefully we can educate other people who get their cars back or are about to get them back about the need to have these things tested every time.”
Following the rise of fentanyl and opioid abuse in the United States, auto cleaning and maintenance workers have said more and more stolen vehicles are being drug tested, KNDU reports.
The vehicle had eight times the national limit for safe exposure to methamphetamine. Pierce County Sheriff’s Department
Culver said she suffered headaches after driving her two children, who had an upset stomach and sleep disorders. Pierce County Sheriff’s Department
“If he [fentanyl] The purity levels are there, it’s deadly,” the head of Bio Management Northwest, John Thomas Stavros, which tests cars for drugs, told the outlet.
AEI Decon, another company that treats cars in which traces of drugs have been found, lists methamphetamine exposure as a serious risk for children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.
Symptoms of methamphetamine exposure may include burning eyes, throat and nose irritation, fever, rapid heart rate, hallucinations, moderate or severe headaches, and impaired mental abilities.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn