GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. -- People cheered and sang the COPS theme Thursday night after police raided a funeral home they say doubled as a crack house and where frantic suspects were found tossing crack cocaine into caskets.
Steven E. Blomquist, 48, the owner of Hollenbeck Funeral Home was charged with felony counts of drug possession and criminal nuisance and misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Police said his girlfriend's two daughters were in the funeral home at the time of the raid.
Fulton County District Attorney Louise Sira said a seven-month investigation determined the couple ran an "extensive" drug ring out of the funeral home, selling to local users. The funeral home also had been the subject of complaints including people finding seminude corpses in plain view or finding people sleeping in some of the rooms, Sira said.
"It's a crack house," Sira told the Gloversville Leader-Herald.
Blomquist and his girlfriend lived on the upper floors of the four-story funeral home in the former industrial city along the Mohawk River 40 miles west of Albany. A capital of glove-making at the turn of the century, its economy has been in decline for decades.
Forty-five city, county and state police officers raided the funeral home around 8 p.m., confiscating cocaine, marijuana, cash and knives. When they burst in the door, several suspects were heaving crack cocaine into caskets.
"There was a visible view of crack inside after the raid," Sira said. "They all scurried like rats to the basement."
As police led the suspects out one by one, people in the crowd chanted the refrain from the COPS show: "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?" A huge cheer erupted when a city bus pulled out to take the 16 people away, Sira said. She said cars filled a nearby parking lot as people spilled out to watch the raid.
Sira said no funerals were going on when the raid was conducted.
A man who answered the phone at the funeral home said Blomquist was not there. There is no home listing for Blomquist.
Blomquist was jailed on $150,000 bail. Sira said he had not hired a lawyer yet.
© 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)
Facebook
Twitter