When officers responded to a vehicle without a license plate that ran out of gas in the middle of a roadway in the wee hours of Wednesday, the driver was suspected of drug use and wound up in the county jail before 2 a.m.

Tamara Renae Smith, 54, Linton, was arrested by Officer Bobby Pierce of the Linton Police Department early Wednesday, January 19.

Officer Pierce reported that very early Wednesday, a maroon Ford Ranger with flashers on was sitting in the middle of Base Road just west of County Road 1000 West in the Linton area.

Smith was the driver who said she ran out of gas on the way to a friend’s house. Officers assisted in pushing the vehicle off the roadway and into a nearby driveway. As they were pushing, they noticed the vehicle did not have a license plate. When asked about it, Smith allegedly admitted the vehicle was not registered.

Officer Pierce said when she was asked for her driver’s license, she first said she had one but didn’t have it with her, then admitted her license was suspended due to not having insurance. A records check verified that info.

Then when she was asked to step to the rear of the vehicle, Officer Pierce said he caught an odor of marijuana. Smith allegedly said she didn’t think there was anything illegal in the vehicle but other people had driven it earlier in the day.

Smith agreed to a search of the vehicle and said she would empty her pockets. When she dumped her cigarettes out, a hand-rolled cigarette containing a plant material was revealed and she allegedly admitted it was marijuana.

Officer Pierce reported that during the search of the vehicle, officers found a plastic zip bag containing multiple small plastic zip bags and one of them contained a white crystal substance that field-tested positive as methamphetamine.

Smith allegedly admitted to using both marijuana and methamphetamine earlier in the day.

Smith was booked into the Greene County Jail at 1:49 a.m. Wednesday. She is being held without bond pending court appearance.

Her bond will be set during her initial hearing in Greene Superior Court on January 24.

She is facing charges of: