An East Ridge police officer patrolling the parking lot of the Motel 6 led to the Sunday morning arrest of two people on drug and theft charges.

According to a police report, the officer on patrol spotted a silver BMW sedan leaving the lot. The officer ran the tag, which came back as stolen out of Chattanooga. The officer  followed the vehicle onto Interstate 75 and stopped the car. According to the report, the female passenger, identified as Courtney Minor, appeared to be nervous as she looked straight ahead and was visibly shaking. The officer clearly smelled the odor of marijuana in the car, the report states.

The Officer spoke with the driver of the car, identified as Robert Hoodenpyle. who said they were headed to his house. The officer asked Hoodenpyle about the stolen tag. Hoodenpyle told the officer that the tag was given to him by a friend. Both parties were asked to step out of the vehicle as it was searched due to the odor of marijuana.

The report states that the officer found a plastic bag under the passenger seat containing what was believed to be 6.5 grams of marijuana. A pipe with residue was also found. Both parties denied owning the weed or the pipe. The report states that Hoodenpyle told police that he smokes marijuana in his car. He also told police that his friend told him that he took the tag off a Honda Accord.

The report states that once the parties were separated, Minor admitted to smoking the weed at Motel 6, and that the marijuana had come from the stash found inside the car. 

According to the report, dispatch confirmed the tag as stolen and that Hoodenpyle was driving on a revoked license.

Hoonenpyle, 40, of a Joyce Avenue address in Chattanooga, was charged with Possession of Schedule VI Drugs, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Driving on a revoked license and Theft under $1,000. He is due to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on Nov. 7.

Minor, 24, of an West Elmwood Drive address in Chattanooga, was charged with Possession of Schedule VI Drugs and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

_ 1700 Prigmore Rd.: Officers were dispatched to the address Saturday afternoon on a reported burglary. According to a police report, dispatchers told police that the two suspects, a man and a woman, were seen walking in the 1500 block of Prigmore. The report states the suspects fit the description and they were both carrying bags. When an officer stopped the suspects they said they had been at a house to meet a man but he wasn’t there. 

The report states that an officer spoke with the victim, who said that he had inherited the house several years ago. His son was in his vehicle and told police that he had seen a man and a woman walking behind the house on Prigmore. The victim said that both he and his son had seen a man walking away from a storage shed behind the house carrying part of a shopping cart to a pavilion on the property.

The victim told police that it had been more than a year since he had opened the shed behind the house. On Saturday he noticed that the handle to the door on the shed appeared to have been damaged. The victim was unclear if anything had been taken from the shed, but it appeared that certain items were out of place. The victim found two pairs of safety goggles in the grass outside the shed. 

The two suspects identified as Anthony Beer and Jessica Blackburn, waived Miranda rights. Beer denied taking anything from the shed. Beer allowed an officer to look inside his backpack. The report states that the officer found a wooden cigar box that the victim remembered had been stored in the shed. The victim also recognized the handwriting as his own on the box. Inside the box police found a glass pipe with the scent of burned marijuana. Also in the bag was a black case containing binoculars that the victim recognized as his. 

According to the report, when police asked Blackburn if she had any drugs on her, she dumped the contents of her bag on the ground. “A silver case fell to the ground and she state it was not hers. The case had her name hand written on the outside of it.” Items found inside the case included a small vile with white powder and two glass pipes. A field test on the powder tested positive for cocaine, the report states.

Beer, 26, of a 6th Avenue address in Chattanooga, was charged with burglary and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Blackburn, 32, of a Rossville address was charged with Possession of Cocaine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

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