A police officer posed as a Burger King worker for 2 months - and people are furious
The operation resulted in two arrests, though it was a relatively small bust: all she found after two months on the job were five grams of marijuana and two morphine pills, the Frederick News-Post reports.
The officer who went undercover was Nicole Fair, who joined the Thurmont, Maryland police department in July.
Around the same time, the police department started hearing rumors that drugs were being sold in the parking lot of the local Burger King.
So the department asked Fair - who wasn't well-known enough in the community to get recognized - to go undercover.
Fair applied for a job at the Thurmont Burger King with a resume that excluded her law enforcement experience, according to the News-Post. Burger King ended up hiring her in August without knowing she was an undercover cop.
During Fair's tenure at Burger King, two workers sold her drugs: Tommy Lee Miller, 23, of Thurmont and Jonathan Brook Moser, 28, of Emmitsburg, according to police.
Miller and Moser were arrested on September 21. Miller was charged with the possession and distribution of marijuana and Moser was charged with the sale of both marijuana and morphine, according to police.
Possessing under 10 grams of marijuana in the state of Maryland isn't a criminal offense - meaning it doesn't result in arrests, jail time, or a criminal record. A first offense carries a fine of only $100.
The charges therefore were a result of the workers' attempts to sell the drugs to the officer.
Some people have criticized the department for spending so much time on a drug bust that ony turned up such a small amount of drugs
"A complete waste of time and energy," Patricia Edison wrote on Facebook.
"What an insane waste of taxpayer dollars. This police department should just be disbanded," Phil Quinn wrote on Twitter.
But Fair said the undercover work and arrests were "extremely rewarding."
"I was hired to help and protect the community of Thurmont, and that was what I was doing," she told the News-Post. 'You hear about all the drug problems we're having here and elsewhere and, whether it's marijuana or something else, we're really feeling the effects of it."