'Bath Salt' Arrest Protects Kids & Earns Creve Coeur Officer Honors

Cases involving synthetic drugs known as "bath salts" have drawn headlines for the behavior they've allegedly caused around the country. Everything from a Georgia man who police there said had "super human" strength and threatened to eat faces, to the reported death of a Missouri man who died after using them last year.

Creve Coeur has not been immune to "bath salt" cases. According to , a woman was stopped April 30, near Olive Boulevard and Craig Road because she wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

The officer involved in the case, Thomas Exline, noticed two young children in the car and noted that the driver was "nervous and sweating profusely," according to police. When the driver consented to a vehicle search, she admitted to having drug-related materials in the car and also admitted to having injected herself with bath salts earlier that day, police said.

Officer Exline was named Co-Officer of the Quarter late last week for his work on the case. In addition to the alleged drug use, authorities said the woman had abducted her children who were in the car at the time of the arrest. An email from the father in the case praising police action and returning his children safely was read during Thursday afternoon's ceremony.

The St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office has not issued formal charges in connection with the case as of this writing.