An innocent woman lost her job and spent weeks behind bars after a police officer erroneously thought she was doing drugs.
Ashley Gabrielle Huff was only 23 years old when she was charged with methamphetamine possession. Her story of wrongfully being arrested in 2014 has resurfaced online, leaving netizens baffled.
The unusual series of events began when an officer from the Gainesville police department flagged the woman’s 1994 Ford Explorer down for a routine traffic stop.
Highlights
- Ashley Huff was wrongfully jailed for weeks over SpaghettiO sauce mistaken for meth.
- The then-23-year-old lost her job and missed her child's birthday due to the arrest.
- Crime lab tests eventually proved the residue was SpaghettiO sauce, not drugs.
- The story resurfaced on Reddit, sparking disbelief and criticism of the police.
Ashley Gabrielle Huff was arrested at age 23 and erroneously charged with methamphetamine possession
Image credits: Gabriel Hohol
Image credits: ABC 10 News
The officer raised suspicion after finding a spoon in the car with what appeared to be some sort of residue.
Found inside the commuter's bag, the spoon contained a “clear, crystal-like substance,” the officer claimed in the police report. He also described Ashley’s demeanor as “nervous.”
Ashley insisted that the substance on the spoon was nothing more than SpaghettiO sauce.
"We had been riding around, and I threw the can in the trash because I was eating them straight out of the can," she was quoted telling the Gainesville Times following the incident. "I just threw the spoon in my purse because I had borrowed it from a friend -- the can of the SpaghettiOs and the spoon."
The California woman tried explain to officers that the substance on the spoon found in her car was SpaghettiO sauce
Image credits: Hall County Sheriff's Office
The wrongfully accused woman vehemently told the officer that the residue was merely from some SpaghettiOs and that there was no way she could be linked to drugs. But the officer suspected that it was bits of meth left on the spoon.
"I found it strange that she would eat SpaghettiOs with a metal spoon while riding in a vehicle, and then put the spoon back in a bag," the report said.
Ashley was arrested and kept in prison for about a month until a crime lab test proved that she was telling the truth: the harmless substance on the spoon was nothing more than spaghetti sauce.
Describing the entire ordeal as “stressful,” the Florida woman had to miss her child’s birthday and even lost her job at Waffle House because of her imprisonment.
"I found it strange that she would eat SpaghettiOs with a metal spoon while riding in a vehicle, and then put the spoon back in a bag," an officer stated in the police report at the time
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Image credits: SpaghettiOs
"It was so stressful," she said. "Nobody believed me. I said I had SpaghettiOs on my spoon. Nobody believed that. Everybody thought it was hilarious, but that was exactly what it was."
About a decade later, the story still left readers shocked after the story resurfaced on Reddit.
“Any cop that mistakes spaghetti O sauce for meth shouldn't have a job,” one Reddit user said while another quipped, “Im gonna start carrying around a bunch of spoons with dried up yogurt residue on it and just wait to be arrested. Few days in jail for a fat payout? Sure.”
“That is the face of a woman who knows she's going to win a massive lawsuit....” another wrote.
"This is actually scary if you think about it," one social media user said about the incident
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