OMAHA, Neb. (WSVN) — There are dumb criminals… and then there’s this guy: a suspect who decided to hide cocaine in the ceiling of a police interrogation room in Nebraska.
KETV reports that 25-year-old Thomas Hartman filed a report with Omaha Police back in October of 2017, accusing his brother of robbing him.
Detectives, however, discovered video of Hartman’s brother on the other side of town during the alleged robbery. Despite investigators asking Hartman to come clean, he repeatedly insisted that his brother stole his money.
While police charged him with false reporting, video from inside the room shows Hartman yelling for his 17-year-old girlfriend, who was in another room accusing Hartman of using her for sex trafficking.
“I think they’re going to take me to jail. Go get that money and bond me out Jaylene,” Hartman yelled through the wall.
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Officers told Hartman to stop yelling, telling him they could also charge him with disturbing the peace.
Still in the interrogation room 90 minutes later, video shows Hartman stacking a chair on the table, then climbing on top and pushing up a ceiling tile.
Officers caught him and believed he was trying to escape, telling him it was a “stupid move.”
“You’re at the frickin’ police station man, and you put a chair up and tried to get in the ceiling,” the officer said.
But Hartman wasn’t attempting to escape; he was trying to hide cocaine.
An officer searched the ceiling, but didn’t find the stashed drugs since the small packet of white powder fell underneath the table when the cop moved the ceiling tile.
The officer found a wallet hidden in the ceiling belonging to someone else, but it wasn’t until a technician went to check the room that the drugs were discovered on the floor.
Prosecutors charged Hartman with drug possession, and he was sentenced to nine months of probation.
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