A Colorado man high on heroin broke into a stranger’s home Sunday night, crashed on their couch and subsequently refused to leave until police were called.
An unidentified friend of Eric Therrien, a resident of Colorado Springs, told police he picked up Therrien at roughly 7 p.m. Sunday, and, suspecting he was on drugs, took him to his home for the evening. Therrien later wandered off from the friend’s home to a unit across the street, where he locked himself in and allegedly crashed on the stranger’s couch, reports KOAA News.
The unidentified friend called the Colorado Springs Police Department, telling them his friend broke into a neighbors home and was refusing to come out. Police arrived on scene and set up a containment area around the home, but Therrien continued to refuse instructions to exit the premises.
The owner, who was not at home when Therrien broke in, eventually returned and gave the house keys to police with permission to go inside. Officers entered with a K-9 unit and found Therrien lying on a couch, who allegedly told police he was coming off a heroin high. Therrien was taken into custody, though it is unclear what charges he faces.
The heroin scourge continues to plague communities across the country. Nationally, drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death for Americans under age 50, killing a record 63,600 people in 2016. The increase is driven primarily by opioids, which claimed 42,249 lives last year, a 28 percent increase over the roughly 33,000 lives lost to opioids in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Opioid overdose made up a staggering 66 percent of all drug overdose deaths in 2016, surpassing the annual number of lives lost to breast cancer.
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