Sheriff: Public Baby Changing Tables Are For Babies, Not Cooking Crack

CHEYENNE — Public restrooms at gas stations are suspect enough without exposing babies to meth and crack cocaine.

That’s the message the Teton County Sheriff’s Office in Driggs, Idaho — just across the Wyoming border — is sending after the discovery of a makeshift crack-cooking station on a baby changing table in a local gas station bathroom.

“(We) would like to remind the public that the baby changing stations at gas station bathrooms are for changing baby diapers and not for making crack cocaine,” the department says in a Wednesday statement.

The plea was accompanied by a photo of the baby changing table laid out with baking soda, a syringe, a lighter, tin foil packets, and a carrying case that held the paraphernalia.

The report goes on to say that someone was arrested for possession with intent to deliver/manufacture cocaine, but doesn’t name the suspect.

Multiple messages left for a spokesperson for the Teton County Sheriff’s Office were not returned by publication time.

‘We Are So Busy Here’

That someone would think to not only do drugs in a gas station bathroom, but to prepare and cook them there as well is a little surprising, said Larry Dauwen, general manager for the Flying J truck stop in Cheyenne.

But he’s not surprised that someone was caught doing something like that.

“I have heard of things like that happening, but it doesn’t happen at this location,” he said.

Because the Flying J does a brisk business, it would be difficult for someone to have enough privacy to do what the suspect in Idaho did, he said.

“Because we are so busy here, nobody’s going to have the time to do something like that,” he said.

Not The Worst Thing

At the Loaf ‘N Jug store on Dell Range Boulevard in Cheyenne, Manager Michael Garton and clerk Leo Hawks said the Teton County baby changing table example is extreme, but not surprising.

They also said they’ve had to deal with worse, even trying to be vigilant and check on and clean bathrooms every 30 minutes.

“Just the other day we had a guy go in the bathroom and just destroy it — he smeared shit all over the place,” Hawks said. “I’m not talking that somebody had an accident and missed.

“This was he pulled up the seat and smeared it all over the stall.”

Cleaning that up wasn’t pleasant, Garton said, adding that he’s found a lot of other stuff in their bathrooms.

“We have found drugs, I walked in there and have had to call hazmat before, we have blood, used needles,” he said. “Then there’s people like that guy painting pictures and murals on the walls with shit.”

While not a bathroom issue, Hawks said they also have to keep an eye out for what happens outside the building.

“I’ve seen some pretty wild things,” he said, including a guy who regularly crawls into the store’s dumpster to sleep.

“We have to go out there when the trash guy comes and make sure he’s not in there,” he said.

Not My Baby

While telling bathroom horror stories can be entertaining, all the gas station workers said it’s not a joke to consider someone doing dangerous drugs on a baby table, then an unsuspecting parent using that same table to change a baby.

“I won’t use a public bathroom to change my kid, no way,” Garton said. “I’ll use the back seat of my car first. I won’t put my baby on (a public changing table). You just don’t know.”

Hawks said he’s a parent and agrees.

“Knowing what we find after other people have been in there, there’s no way I’d ever put my baby on one of those,” he said.

Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.