If you get lost in the woods while making meth in the the middle of the night, it's probably not the best idea to call the police for help. And if you do call the cops, you probably shouldn't tell them that you, along with your two friends, were out hunting for ghosts. Alas, this is just what a man in North Carolina decided to do earlier this week, a decision that landed him and his two meth-making/ghost-hunting partners in jail.

According to the Caldwell County Sheriff's department, Sonny Hyatt and his two friends/business partners, Thomas Imler and Eric Schmidt, were wandering the woods near Lenoir, North Carolina, looking for a place to cook meth. An argument ensued after a failed attempt to set up their equipment, and Imler and Schmidt left Hyatt, taking the meth supplies with them.

Hyatt called 911, and told the dispatcher that he was lost in the woods. Using coordinates from the GPS on his phone, deputies from the sheriff's department rescued Hyatt. Later, when asked why he was in the woods in the middle of the night, Hyatt told deputies he was hunting for ghosts.

Perhaps because the idea of three grown men wandering through the woods in the middle of the night hunting for ghosts is ridiculous, the deputies interrogated Hyatt, eventually getting him to confess that he'd been using methamphetamine. Hyatt gave deputies permission to search his apartment, where officers found a small meth-lab and chemicals used to manufacture the drug. Also discovered in the apartment: Hyatt's buddies-in-crime, Imler and Schmidt, who'd made their way from the woods via a carride from a friend.

Apparently, this is what happened leading up to the three becoming lost, from the Hickory Record:

The [sheriff's office] release said the three men had gathered all the necessary ingredients to cook meth and, fearful of being caught doing it at the apartment, decided to go into the woods off Goat Farm Road. Hyatt drove them using Schmidt’s car, and they walked deep into the woods during the night looking for a place to start the process.

“The suspects, being fairly inexperienced, caused the cook to fail and got into an argument over it,” the release said. “They went their separate ways with Imler and Schmidt taking what was left of the lab and equipment with them.”

All three suspects were charged with one count of felony manufacture of methamphetamine and on count of felony possession of methamphetamine precursor chemicals and are being held on a $50,000 bond.

“You hear every excuse imaginable,” said Caldwell Sheriff Alan C. Jones told the Hickory Record. “These criminals would have us believe they were looking for paranormal activity in the woods at night and simply got lost. We didn’t fall for that story at all.”

[via New York Daily News]