By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

BURRILLVILLE — Town Councilman Kevin M. Blais was expecting to find some loose change or perhaps an old pen or book of matches when he was rummaging through a used police cruiser he bought at auction last week.
What he found was a bag of crack cocaine.

Blais purchased the decommissioned Hartford, Conn., police cruiser through an online municipal auction last week and stumbled on the drugs while he was cleaning out the vehicle back home in Burrillville.
When he saw the 2004 Crown Victoria up for auction, Blais said he couldn’t pass it up.
“I was looking to upgrade my 1995 Hyundai wagon and this was a good deal,” he said.
Blais said he paid for the car, picked it up in Hartford last Thursday and drove it home. While he was cleaning the vehicle the next day he noticed a cracked area on the one-piece molded seat assembly over the floor panel. When he removed the seat assembly to clean the floor panel, he found a plastic bag containing what he perceived to be individually wrapped “rocks” of cocaine as well as another small packet “that looked pretty unsavory,” he said.
“Clearly, someone had stuffed this contraband in there,” said Blais, who theorizes that whoever it was that was taken into custody managed to discard the drugs through the crack.
Blais said he immediately contacted the Burrillville Police Department, who sent Detective Wayne Richardson and another officer to Blais’ Tarkiln Road home to investigate and retrieve the drugs.
“I think I did the responsible thing,” Blais said.
Burrillville Lt. Kevin San Antonio confirmed that the substance was in fact cocaine and that he contacted Hartford police to inform them of the discovery. “They were very apologetic,” San Antonio said.
Blais said he purchased a second decommission police car through the auction, but hasn’t had a chance to go through it yet.
“When I do I’ll let you know if I find anything interesting,” he quipped.