A call from a concerned store employee to the Elizabethton Police Department about possible

shoplifting led to drug-related charges for an Elizabethton couple.
Andrew Michael LaMountain, 28, 205 Nave Hollow Loop, and Jodi Arliea Jones, 26, 147 Borderview Ave., were both arrested and charged with promotion of methamphetamine manufacture and shoplifting on Thursday afternoon.
The incident started shortly after 5 p.m. when a Wal-Mart employee contacted police saying a male and female had purchased Aqua Tubing and had possibly shoplifted lithium batteries. They had left the store in a green Chevrolet Trail Blazer.
“I am familiar that the selected items are often used in the manufacture of methamphetamine,” wrote EPD officer John Bulla in the arrest report.

Bulla, along with EPD Cpl. Ryan Brackett, located the vehicle pulling into Lowe’s, where they reported seeing the couple enter the store and place a container of drain cleaner in Jones’ bag. Bulla wrote they then left the store without paying for the cleaner.
The vehicle was stopped in the parking lot of the Post Office by EPD Sgt. Shane Darling, where Bulla reported he observed several items including the drain cleaner at Jones’ feet.
LaMountain, who was driving, gave consent to search the vehicle and Bulla wrote that officers found four lithium batteries, paint thinner, Aqua Tubing and a receipt for Claritin along with the drain cleaner.
“They each admitted to being meth users and stealing the Clean Shot Drain Cleaner,” Bulla wrote in the report. “LaMountain stated he acquired the items to take to another individual to manufacture methamphetamine.”
They will each appear in Carter County General Sessions Court on Aug. 19.