With Radio City being only 2 days away, getting an orchestra ticket for face value the day before the show felt like a God send. My friend Chris and I had a few beers on the train into the city, just to get us excited and relaxed for the first phish show in months. 

We arrive in the city and I popped a tab for the upcoming festivities.  When we got to Radio City, buying some mushrooms seemed like a good idea... we would eat them while waiting on the Roseland ticket line after the show that night. Since the acid I had was a little weak, I thought i would sell the rest of my ten strip at a really cheap price, just to get rid of them. 

So i began to see if anybody wanted some. Two nice kids decided they wanted a tab each, so i gave it to them for $5 for the 2. I eventually found someone else to buy the rest of the strip for $20. Being drunk, and beginning to trip, I forgot all about the fact of undercover cops. 

As I walk away from the deal and towards the entrance to go inside, I was grabbed and told to be quiet and don't run.  As I was thrown against a wall and searched, I could only regret forgetting about police.  When they found the mushrooms and a bowl, I thought jail was going to be close by. 

I was thrown in a van for 45 min. along with Chris. Two more kids our age were then thrown in the van as well. I started a conversation with them and it turns out we were both from the same town.  It was amazing that 4 people from the same place were in the same police van.

While in the van, the police told us how they were going to smoke the marijuana they just picked up from the other two kids. We were taken to sixth precinct and were harassed and treated with such disrespect. The cops took over $200 I had on me and laughed, telling me they were taking it for themselves and i could do nothing about it.  I couldn't believe how corrupt some police really are until then.

We were at 6th precinct for about five hours until they took us to central booking. I was there until 6pm the next day. I had my court appearance and was told I was going to jail for 3rd degree sale of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. 

I was horrified; I wasn't ready to go to riker's island. It turned out that when my father arrived at court, he met a C.O. that lived close to us. He paid $1000 bail and the C.O. found me just in time... I was on line for the bus into riker's island.

I felt such relief.  I eventually returned home that night, so thankful to be there. I may have missed out on a show i had a ticket for and Roseland, but the two kids I met in the police van turned out to get into the second night radio city and roseland w/o tickets.  I was just left with the ticket stub and bad memories.

 - Ryan