“…on the second-floor of the motel, the officer saw a man sitting outside his hotel room cutting up batteries…the officer asked him what he was 
doing and, at the same time, noticed the door ajar and some fumes or vapors coming out of the door…(he) pushed the door open and a larger cloud of vapors came out…the man cutting the batteries had been cooking methamphetamine in his room, police say…”
A motel guest cutting up batteries outside his room stirred the suspicions of a Sunset Hills police officer, who uncovered a meth lab at the EconoLodge early today.
The officer, overcome by fumes, was taken to a hospital after complaining of being lightheaded. And all of the remaining motel guests in the entire east wing of the motel were evacuated by police and firefighters for about three hours early Thursday until the mobile meth lab was removed.
A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of drug manufacturing. “He was apparently trying to do this with the shake-and-bake method,” LeGrand said, referring to the mobile method of making the drug. “But he forgot some ingredient and, because of that, he decided to heat some of this mixture in the microwave.”
The guests who were evacauted from the hotel after midnight were allowed to return to their rooms at about 3 a.m. after the county’s drug unit removed the materials.
