SW Redmond girl, 7, discovers bag of drugs in front yard, family says; police say likely meth

(Update: Adding video, comments from girl, family)

Family looks to move: 'This doesn't really feel like a safe neighborhood any more'

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A 7-year-old Redmond girl found a bag of what police say was likely methamphetamine in her front yard after a bike ride with her sister Saturday night around 8 p.m.

When the girl brought it to her mom, Brianna Rushing, thinking they were harmless little crystals, the mother said she immediately called the police to confirm what she thought to be methamphetamine.

“She likes to collect rocks, so she assumed it was some type of rock," Rushing said. "[The police] were worried about her possibly opening the bag, maybe she had ingested it, so they asked if she needed an ambulance and that kind of put the fear into me of how bad it really was," Rushing said.

The family has lived in their home off of SW Reindeer Avenue for five years, but said it’s a time for change.

“This doesn’t really feel like a safe neighborhood any more," Rushing said.

When the Redmond police officer arrived after the call, Rushing said he told her fentanyl is commonly laced with other drugs, making them even more lethal. She was relieved her daughter didn't open the bag of apparent methamphetamine and ingest the substance or get it on her skin.

"I’m really happy that I didn’t open it," seven-year-old Savannah said.

If her four year old son found the bag, she said things could have been a lot worse.

As far as how the bag of drugs could have landed in her yard, Rushing has no idea.

"I've had a lot of theories," she said. "We have the Ring camera, and I went through all the footage from that weekend and couldn’t find anything. I mean, I was checking cars driving by, to see if anybody could have tossed it out the window. I was checking people walking passed my house. I honestly have no idea. People said that it could have blown in by the wind.”

She plans on taking some precautionary measures.

"I’m wanting to add a camera to this side (of the house), right here," Rushing said. "We have a lot of traffic that comes through here.”

And like her neighbors have done, she’s also considering a fence.

Within four miles of the family's home, a Redmond man living near the Hayden Park area posted on Nextdoor.com that his puppy chewed up the syringe of a used hypodermic needle, and he spotted a bag with remnants of white powder that he believed were drugs.

He said he went into his backyard Wednesday night around 11:30 p.m. to let his puppy inside, and saw the shredded pieces. After realizing what it was, and finding the used needle, he called the veterinarian and was advised on what symptoms to look out for, in case his dog got anything in his system.

In addition to the cameras he already set, he's planning on putting up motion-activated lights that turn on if someone gets within 10 feet of the yard.

The whole situation he said, surprised and angered him.

Had his children, ages 2, 4 and 7, managed to get pricked by the needle, he fears it could have put them in jeopardy. In this case, it's a fortunate thing his kids dislike needles he said, because they'd be unlikely to pick it up.

He urges people to keep an eye out for risks like his and Rushing's family encountered.

“We all know that drugs are around, I just never expected it to be this close to home in my front yard," Rushing said. “It was scary, really was a scary moment for us.”