3 arrested in Delaware County meth lab

Three people found in what turned out to be a meth lab in a Delaware County home are under arrest and due to be arraigned, Tuesday afternoon.

Police learned about the home after an overnight incident at a CVS pharmacy on MacDade Boulevard in Glenolden.

Collingdale Police Chief Bob Adams reports that at about 1:20am, a man "wearing white shorts and a white tank top had been in the store for an hour and had not purchased anything. The employees were unsure if the male had taken anything and stated he may have been under the influence of something."

The man noticed the clerk and officer talking, and ran away. Collingdale police were told he was running on east on MacDade into Collingdale.

An officer searching the rear alley of the 1200 block of MacDade saw a man matching the description standing in the rear screen door of an apartment. He tried to make contact and knocked on that door.

That's when a woman, later identified as Christine Andress-Nye, answered. The officer asked if the man described had just entered. She told the officer Timothy Fauls had just arrived.

The officer asked Fauls to step outside and to the back of his patrol car. The Glenolden officer who was at the CVS showed up and asked Fauls what he was doing in the store.

Fauls said he was shopping, but had hit his head on a shelf and cut his nose. He added, he placed the items he had down and left the store. Fauls was patted down for officer safety and didn't have anything from the CVS on him.

Then, a Norwood officer came and Andress-Nye reportedly invited him into the apartment, and showed him several bags Fauls had brought there over the past day or two. Andress-Nye said Fauls was not staying at the apartment and had brought several bags of what she thought were clothes and work tools.

The Norwood officer pointed out there were "several open plastic bags containing a white powdery substance, along with a can of Meth-Ethyl, lighter fluid, crushed pills and an empty box of Sudafed."

Eventually, Collingdale Chief Adams and the Pennsylvania State Police Clandestine Lab Response Team arrived. They executed a search warrant at 8:40am.

Turns out, police say there was equipment to make one pot of meth at a time. They said it was not a large operation, but certainly dangerous enough.

Investigators said this amount of meth, shipped in small containers, can explode when opened, and the force could burn a person's face and close up their airway.

The three people in the house at the time -- Fauls of Springfield, Andress-Nye of Collingdale, and Michael Papale, also of Collingdale are all charged with possession with the intent and related charges, reckless endangerment, criminal conspiracy, risking and causing a catastrophe, and 780-113.1(a)(3) liquefied ammonia gas: precursors and chemicals.