Package at door turns out to be marijuana

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A Washington couple said they were surprised that a strange package delivered to their home turned out to be full of marijuana.

Eric Anderson, 47, and Melanie Sloan, 44, said a FedEx driver put a box on their doorstep just after 6 p.m. Monday and they brought it inside the house, The Washington Post reported Friday.

"We have an 11-month-old," Anderson said. "Sometimes somebody will send us a present, and we don't know what it is."

Anderson, a former Air Force intelligence officer, said he began opening the box around 8 p.m. and considered it suspicious when he found it contained a second, heavily taped box with a taped-up Styrofoam container inside.

"My curiosity got the better of me," Anderson said. "Melanie will tell you, I'm very risk-acceptant -- something about 10 years on active duty."

Anderson took the package outside and continued opening it until he came across coffee grounds.

"I cut about a 3-inch-wide gap in the top," Anderson said. "And under the coffee grounds, you could really clearly see it. I said, 'Oh, yeah, it's pot.'"

Police said it is not unusual for drug dealers to have packages delivered during the day to local houses with the intention of picking them up before the residents arrive home. They said the package received by Anderson and Sloan, which contained 33 pounds of marijuana, was likely delayed by a snowfall.

Investigators said the package had a fake return address.