WESTFIELD – A brazen salesman was arrested by city police Thursday evening when he allegedly advertised his wares by walking from one end of an Elm Street bar to the other calling out “Coke for sale. I’ve got coke for sale.”
Westfield police report that a community policing officer was advised of the suspect’s sales technique by a patron of Tommy D’s. When the plainclothes officer entered the Elm Street establishment he spoke with the bartender and overheard a person at the bar loudly discussing a cocaine transaction with another customer.
The officer reports that the suspect, later identified as Christopher Sagan, 33, of 139 Union Street, subsequently approached him and struck up a conversation.
The officer reports that the man incredulously said “That guy thinks I’m a cop” and went on to say that he wasn’t a police officer and, to prove the point, said that he had narcotics in his pocket. Sagan then offered to sell the officer cocaine.
A few minutes later the officer left the bar briefly and advised a supervisor of what he had found in the bar.
Sgt. Steve Dickinson and Officer Kevin Bard then entered the bar and escorted Sagan to the rear of the facility for an interview.
Dickinson reports the he observed white powder on the man’s nose and a plastic bag containing a white powder was found in his pack of cigarettes.
The powder was field tested and identified as cocaine.
Sagan was arrested for possession of a Class B drug. Because the bar is within a thousand feet of the St. Mary’s schools, he was also charged with a drug violation near a school or park.
Sagan is expected to be arraigned today in Westfield District Court.
