A Florida man is $37,500 richer after doughnut glaze is mistaken for meth

A Florida man was awarded $37,500 from the City of Orlando for wrongly spending time in jail after his doughnut crumbs were mistaken for meth.

In December 2015, NPR reports that Daniel Rushing, who is 64, had just dropped off a friend at chemotherapy. Then, he was driving home an older woman from his church who worked at the 7-11 and otherwise would walk two miles home when police pulled Rushing over.

They said he was driving 42 miles per hour in a 30-mile zone. Cops searched his car and noticed some crystals on the floor. They tested them and they were positive for methamphetamine.

But, Rushing insisted it was just glaze from a Krispy Kreme doughnut -- a treat he gets himself every other Wednesday, he told NPR.

Rushing was booked on charges of possessing methamphetamine, while armed with a weapon. He has a concealed-weapons permit.

After further testing, the white crystals were determined not to be a controlled substance. The charges against Rushing were dropped.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the officer involved in the incident was given a written reprimand for making an improper arrest.

Rushing had spent ten hours in jail and was released on bail.

A 2016 investigation by ProPublica and the New York Times showed that this happens more often than you might think. The inexpensive drug testing kits that officers use when out in the field often generate false positives.

That investigation showed tens of thousands of people are wrongly sent to jail each year based on these results.