Deputies Find Meth Lab In Car While Arresting Shoplifter

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ST. AUGUSTINE (CBSMiami/AP) — Four officers were briefly hospitalized after discovering a methamphetamine lab in the car of a man they were arresting for shoplifting.

St. Johns County Sheriff's spokesman Chuck Mulligan says the deputies were called to a St. Augustine Wal-Mart Saturday after employees noticed the man making multiple trips to his car with stolen items.

Mulligan says deputies arrested the man and began searching his car. He says one deputy opened a bucket and was overcome by fumes from methamphetamine-making materials.

That deputy and three other deputies were transported to an area hospital for medical evaluation. They were treated and released.

The arrested man was booked into the St. Johns County Jail on drug and larceny charges.

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