AFFTON, MO – An Affton, MO, man repeatedly arrested for huffing, was arrested for the 18th time on Thursday. Then he was released for the 18th time because there isn’t a specific law against “huffing”.
In February, we showed you an alleged serial huffer caught on video by a customer getting high on compressed cans of air at the Richmond Heights Menard’s store. His behavior was bizarre and a bit scary. He paid for his cans and left.
Since that incident, there had been no sign of him until yesterday when he was arrested for the eighteenth time near the Family Dollar store in Affton. The 47-year-old has been arrested for disturbing the peace and inhaling solvents but has never been charged, so he is not being identified.
The St. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office says there are no state laws prohibiting inhalants.
A man who lives near the huffer and heard he was arrested again said, “I don’t know exactly what happened. I know he was arrested and the police came and said he was acting strangely around there.”
The concerned neighbor also called police because he left a shopping cart full of medication at his friend’s house.
The neighbor added, “I called them a couple times, finally today they came and took stuff away. I saw he had a shopping bag full of medications, all had his name on it.”
Witnesses told me they saw the man get dropped off near the Dollar General yesterday with his bags. And that he was screaming in the parking lot after buying and huffing the aerosol cans.
All say something has to be done with this guy.
His neighbor adds, “I hope that they do without him hurting somebody else.”
The St. Louis County prosecutor’s office tells me there are a few of the man’s cases under review right now and they are working to make it illegal to inhale solvents. Thirty-seven other states have the law in place.
