Model Erin Alberino got a frosty reception from police when she claimed the $500,000 worth of methamphetamine found in her car boot was actually fake snow.
But the 23-year-old had the last laugh after tests showed she was telling the truth about the harmless white powder police suspected was the drug “P”.
Even though she’s been cleared of drug charges, Erin, of Hamilton, is still traumatised by the nightmare that began when she bought the novelty product for $2.50 from a budget shop.
“I like buying things that are random and cool. I’m just a big kid,” says Erin, talking exclusively to New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. “When I saw it in the shop, I really wanted to try it. It came in a test tube and I mixed it with cold water and it expanded into a substance like snow.”
The night before her arrest, Erin made the powder into a snowball, which she jokingly called Henry. At the time, she was on a road trip from Auckland to Palmerston North to see family, with a stop-off at the oanfield race track in Feilding to model at a car event.
Erin put Henry into her car boot with her luggage and forgot about it. During the night, the “snowball” melted into a slushy white lump.
The next day, Erin arrived in Feilding. She says she was pulled up at a police road block where officers, who had done a bust in the area, were searching cars for drugs.
Erin admitted she had a marijuana joint in her car and when police checked her boot, they found a half-melted Henry.
To Erin’s horror, police decided that it was “P” and were doubtful when she insisted it was fake snow.
She was arrested, kept in police cells, and even spent one night in Arohata Women’s Prison while being investigated. The memory of being in the back of a paddy wagon, with blood smeared on the walls and seats, will haunt her forever.
“I didn’t want to touch the walls and I got bruises on the back of my legs from trying to stay on the seat,” she says.
Erin was fingerprinted and had DNA taken. Because she was hysterically upset by this stage, she was put in the at-risk unit where she was checked every 15 minutes.
“I was really upset and crying a lot, and they thought I was going to harm myself. But I wouldn’t hurt myself. I just knew I didn’t belong there,” she says.
other women in the cells were unexpectedly nice to her during her brief stay. “They helped me understand what was going on. I’ve never been arrested before,” she says. “I tried to tell them the story about the snow and they believed me after a while. I sent them a thank you note and a Christmas card.”
Police continued to grill Erin during her incarceration and told her she was skating on thin ice. “one said, ‘This is going to put you in prison for a very long time,'” she remembers. “I was told I was looking at 24 years in jail. I kept telling them it was only pretend snow.”
Erin says police even tried to cut a deal with her to inform on drug dealers. “They were trying to get me to nark; to give them names and addresses. But I didn’t understand what they wanted me to tell them because I didn’t know anything. I’ve never even touched “P”, let alone smoked it.”
Erin was only allowed to make one three-minute phone call from the prison and decided to call her mother.
“It was the only phone number I knew off by heart but I really didn’t want to call her because I knew it was going to be all right in the end. It was the hardest phone call of my life. My mum thought they had the wrong number because she just couldn’t believe it.”
After three days in custody, Erin was bailed to her mother Paula’s home in Palmerston North on 24-hour curfew, while waiting for tests to prove her innocence.
It took 10 days for the result to come through and during that time her great-grandmother died. Both Erin and her mum decided not to attend the funeral because of the humiliation.
“We didn’t want to go because the snow hadn’t come back as snow yet. I couldn’t face everybody. It was so embarrassing for my mum.”
Thankfully, the results were good.”oy lawyer rang me and said, ‘Erin, I know you already know this, but the results have come back and it’s not methamphetamine or a drug of any kind.
“I’d started to doubt myself. Fake snow started to sound more and more ridiculous.”
In court, Erin was cleared of possessing methamphetamine for supply and permitting a car to be used for a drug offence. She pleaded guilty to possession of 0.2g of cannabis, for which she was granted diversion.
Although she’s been cleared of dealing “P”, Erin is still counting the cost to her reputation, with model friends and employers shunning her.
“It’s totally changed my life,” she says. “I’m not going to be able to find a real job any time soon. I don’t think anyone’s going to want to hire me – and all because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
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