TYRONE - Police suspect bath salts were behind a Tyrone couple's claims of mustachioed men with "silly faces" and other people hiding outside their Washington Avenue home earlier this month.
On Feb. 7 just before 3 a.m., Melissa A. Zimmerman, 32, of 436 Washington Ave. called 911 with a report of "numerous people" in the backyard trying to steal unnamed items. When police arrived, they found her live-in boyfriend, Branden S. Williams, 28, near Fifth Street and Garden Alley claiming there were men, women and even children in his yard, court records indicate.
Police said Williams pointed to a nearby porch and claimed a man was hiding there, but police said no one was there. Williams said people hadn't stolen anything, but they were trying to take things from the couple's yard, a claim he said could be verified by his home surveillance footage.
Police said as Williams showed officers the supposed surveillance video, he pointed to numerous people he said were on the screen. Police said Williams claimed these people, who police could not see, were wearing black and white suits and included children. While watching the video, one of the officers noticed their police car on the screen and police realized what Williams was showing the officers was not taped but in real time.
Still the couple claimed to see people that police said were not real, and both appeared to be under the influence but not drunk. Both denied taking drugs, police said, and continued to insist there were people outside hiding in various spots around the yard.
