'Smelly' bag left on Olympia bus; Drugs, money inside

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A duffel bag filled with marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms was found on the night bus between downtown Olympia and Evergreen State College Sunday.

Surveillance video shows 43-year-old Michael Henderson getting on the Intercity Transit bus in Olympia Sunday, sitting down and putting his large duffel bag beside him.

At one point, he gets up to allow a wheelchair rider to have a seat.  He remembered the bag at that point, but when he got off the bus, he left the bag behind.

"I come back and there's a bag on my bus," said bus driver Bill Smith. Smith said the bag had a familiar odor. "I smelt something that smelled of marijuana."

Surveillance video then shows Henderson coming back the next day to get his bag. By then, Olympia police knew what was in it.

"Four different tubs of marijuana and what we believe are hallucinogenic mushrooms," said Laura Wohl, Olympia Police spokeswoman.

There was also a wad of more than $440, most of it in $20 bills, a scale and small zip bags.

"It was obviously done with intent to sell," said Wohl.

Driver Bill Smith said it still baffles him.

“Like I said, I couldn't tell if the bag itself smelled like marijuana or if there’s something in it," said Smith.  "But I didn't want to find out."

“It was time for a change in my life,” said Henderson to an arresting officer.

Henderson was arrested for possession of narcotics with the intent to sell. He has been booked into Thurston County Jail while prosecutors try to decide what charges to file against him.

KIRO