Took Off With $8,000 : 2 Boys Have a High Time on Pilfered Drug Money

Two Northern California boys, who ran away with $8,000 hidden by a suspected drug dealer during a narcotics raid, are in custody in Columbus, Ohio, after a five-day, $3,000 spending spree.

Officers arrested the two teen-agers at the Columbus airport Sunday after a startled waitress told police the two gave her a $100 tip for serving an 80-cent cola. Authorities found nearly $5,000 on the youths as well as less than a gram of cocaine.

The two boys ran away from their Petaluma homes the day before Thanksgiving after one of them, a 14 year old, apparently saw his neighbor hiding money in some bushes. The neighbor, a suspected cocaine dealer whose house was being raided at the time by narcotics officers, told the boy he was about to be arrested and to give the money to his wife after the raid, police said.

He didn’t.

Instead, he called a 13-year-old friend and they took the money and chartered a limousine that took them to the San Francisco airport. Buying tickets under assumed names, the boys told police, they flew to Chicago where they bought leather jackets, stereo cassette players and meals at fancy restaurants and stayed in expensive hotels. After a few days they flew to Columbus where one of the boys grew up and has an uncle.

The fun ended Sunday at the Columbus airport.

Columbus police charged the boys with possession of narcotics and delinquency, but Officer Floyd Wise told reporters that the charges would probably be dropped so the two could return home to Petaluma. Wise said the boys would not be required to pay back any of the money because police believe it is drug-related.

Sgt. Mike Kerns of the Petaluma Police Department said the two were reported missing on Thanksgiving Day and that on Sunday he got a call from Columbus police asking why “these young kids seem to have a bunch of money.”

“We’re just waiting to get them back here so we can talk with them a little more about their neighbor,” Kerns said.