A crowbar, a knife and some booze.
That's what Davison County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Peterson found in the purse of a woman attending court Tuesday morning at the Davison County Public Safety Building.
Prior to a tour of the Davison County Jail, Peterson showed the five county commissioners an example of the items he finds when working the metal detector for court proceedings. Tuesday's haul, all from one visitor, included a knife, a bottle of liquor and a crowbar.
The woman was also found with a "batarang," the bat-shaped throwing weapon toted by comic book hero Batman.
And Peterson said he finds a wide variety of contraband visitors wittingly or unknowingly attempt to smuggle into proceedings at either the Public Safety Building or the Davison County Courthouse.
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"It differs each day," Peterson said. "A lot of times we're finding drugs, we're finding just about everything coming through, and it's nice to have the screening process. We like to think that we're catching most of it, and we're probably not catching all of it."
Later in the tour, Jail Administrator Don Radel offered another example of the items Peterson finds while working the metal detector. Radel said Peterson once found a small coin purse filled with crystal methamphetamine in a man's back pocket when the man was attending his own court hearing.
"His explanation was he woke up late for court, so he threw on the same pants he had on the night before and forgot it was in his pocket," Radel said.
Items like knives are placed in storage, unless the county gets a court order to sell the weapons, and Peterson said the alcohol will be poured out. Drugs are also confiscated.
After seeing the items confiscated on Tuesday, County Auditor Susan Kiepke asked if the woman will be charged for any illegal activity.
"She could be," Radel said. "Ultimately, that will be up to the state's attorney if they want to charge her for it. It all falls back on intent, you know, did she bring something in here with intent to do harm with it?"
If the woman intended to do harm, Radel said, it would guarantee a charge.
