Swallowing evidence: not so clever after all

Today's Houstonist hint: If you get stopped by the police while carrying crack, don't hide the drugs by swallowing them. It's bad enough to get arrested for possession, but somehow it's worse if the officer who arrests you has to save your life first — which is what happened early Wednesday morning in Hitchcock.

Around 2:30 a.m., HItchcock police officer Chad Powers made a routine traffic stop. While he was taking to the driver of the car he had pulled over, Powers noticed the passenger trying to hide something. Powers told him to stop, but he didn't, so Powers ordered the man out of the car and handcuffed him. As Powers was talking to the passenger, he began having trouble breathing; Powers called for an EMS team, but soon realized the man might choke to death before paramedics arrived. So Powers performed the Heimlich maneuver — which caused a plastic bag containing more than a half ounce of crack to fly out of the man's mouth. Oops!

The passenger, 28-year-old Calvin Bernard Benson, faces charges of possession of a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence, which could carry prison terms of up to 30 years and fines totaling $20,000. He's in jail with a $500,000 bond.