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Man, nephew find meth lab in auctioned storage unit

Steve Bohannon and his nephew found the meth lab equipment in a storage unit they won at an auction at Cubesmart in Rancho Cordova.

By Ben Hooper
A hazmat crew works to clean up the Rancho Cordova, Calif., storage unit where Steve Bohannon and his uncle, Ken, discovered the meth lab. KRCA-TV screenshot
A hazmat crew works to clean up the Rancho Cordova, Calif., storage unit where Steve Bohannon and his uncle, Ken, discovered the meth lab. KRCA-TV screenshot

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RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif., July 13 (UPI) -- Abandoned storage units are often bought by treasure hunters in the hopes of striking gold, but a California man and his nephew said they struck crystal -- crystal meth.

Steve Bohannon said he and his uncle, Ken, won the auction for a unit at Cubesmart in Rancho Cordova that had been in default for more than 45 days, and their $80 purchase soon revealed some unusual contents.

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"We opened it up; it looked fine from the beginning, and then we found a couple of boxes that said 'Danger, Poison!' on them, so we're like 'Oh, we better stay away from those ones,'" Bohannon told KRCA-TV.

Police said the boxes contained hazardous meth lab equipment. They said the equipment was old-fashioned and dangerous enough to warrant a clean-up visit from a hazmat team.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said investigators are working to determine whether the lab was operated on site. The department said detectives are tracking down the former owners of the unit.

Storage unit meth labs are not unheard of -- police in St Paul, Minn., arrested a man last year when he opened his storage unit in view of two police officers who spotted his working meth lab.

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