DUNMORE -- Police swarmed the 200 block of East Drinker Street Friday afternoon after finding an active meth lab inside a second-floor apartment above Two Brothers Pizza.
Marty Coar’s family owns the business.
“We had a catering for a wedding today, so I had my grandmother, my aunt, my daughter, my mother, my sister, my father. When I think about how upset I am to have my family there that they could have been in severe trouble,” Coar said. “It just seems we can't win with tenants, this guy was a retired military.”
Stunned on-lookers crowded East Drinker Street, watching as police investigated. John Gregory owns Sweeper Central across the street.
“Very scary, terrifying, in fact. It could have exploded. We walk by there a hundred times a day, never noticed anything,” Gregory said.
“Dunmore’s a small town and we’re not used to seeing this kind of stuff, so this has totally got me off guard,” said John Lampman of Dunmore.
The Dunmore police chief says when officers arrived at the apartment, George Wright, 41, was in the process of cooking a single bottle of meth inside. He was taken into custody.
A state police hazmat crew was called in to clean the apartment as Drinker Street remained closed for hours at the busiest intersection in the borough, known as Dunmore corners.
Police say they had been watching the suspected meth maker for two months after he was flagged on a law enforcement database for buying a lot of Sudafed, a drug used to make meth.
Officers went to his apartment Friday afternoon after they say he bought more Sudafed.
“I’m just grateful that my family’s out of there. I mean, the lost business tonight, we could deal with that. Could you imagine the tragedy if something would have--I have so much anger inside of me for this man,” Coar said.
Police have charged Wright for that suspected meth lab. He faces several charges including operating a meth lab and risking a catastrophe.
