Fitchburg man arrested outside Leominster Walmart after police find meth and fake plates on unregistered car

LEOMINSTER — On Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, at approximately 3:05 a.m., Officer William Taylor of the Leominster Police Department was dispatched to the parking lot of the Walmart located at 11 Jungle Road following a report from an employee who stated that a “black car” was running near the grocery entrance and they wanted it “moved along.”

(The account and quotations in this article were sourced from the printed Personnel Narrative of Officer William Taylor and do not reflect any political perspective or personal opinion of News Link Live, which is strictly a business entity.)

“However, the employee that greeted police on scene pointed out the vehicle in question, which was the only one running in the lot, to be a red Subaru Legacy bearing an unassigned plate on its rear, ‘PC MA 3LPP72,’ which was a registration formerly belonging to a Nissan Sentra, canceled on August 6, 2025,” Officer Taylor said. “Dispatch advised the Subaru was believed to belong to a party, later identified as Seth Camp, whom this agency had dealt with recently and who had an outstanding arrest warrant.”

According to police, Seth W. Camp, 31, is a resident of Elm Street in Fitchburg, MA.

“Seth was the Subaru’s sole occupant, sleeping in the driver’s seat; he awoke to me shining my flashlight on him from the passenger side, where I had approached to gain a better view of the Subaru’s interior,” Officer Taylor said. “I asked Seth to roll down the windows on both sides, and in response he shut off the ignition.  then asked Seth, since the engine was off, to instead open his door; he was slow to comply with this, and the door on my side was locked. Since Seth was failing to obey my commands, and I suspected he was the party with an arrest warrant, at that point I gave him an exit order from the vehicle.”

Officer Taylor said he conducted a pat frisk of Camp’s outer clothing for dangerous items and found a screwdriver in his pocket, which he noted “could readily be used as an edged weapon.”

“Amongst the other hard objects I felt and subsequently had to remove from Seth’s pockets to discern, were two items of drug paraphernalia: a glass smoking apparatus with burnt residue and a lighter,” Officer Taylor said. “A small glassine baggy containing no more than a gram of an off-white crystal substance fell out of Seth’s left pants pocket as I pulled out the smoking apparatus. I held it up to Seth, told him it looked like crack to me, and asked if he would like to tell me what it was, to which he informed me it was rather ‘meth.’”

Officer Taylor said he then placed Camp under arrest for unlawful possession of a controlled substance without incident.

“I read Seth his Miranda warnings from the card I carry with me while on duty, and when I paused after the penultimate question (asking whether he understood what I had told him), he answered ‘No,’ so I asked him no further questions,” Officer Taylor said.

Officer Taylor said he confirmed Camp’s identity using a Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) photo and verified his outstanding warrant status through the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) database on his cruiser’s mobile data terminal.

“Not remembering off the top of my head whether methamphetamines were listed as a Class A or B substance under [94C/31], as it is not a controlled substance I encounter as frequently as others, I began opening the criminal law reference book I keep in my cruiser to look it up in the chart inside before transmitting Seth’s specific offense information over the radio, when Seth spoke voluntarily from the prisoner compartment behind me, advising that it was Class B, which he knew from recently getting in similar trouble. Seth was correct,” Officer Taylor said. Adding, “I performed a search incident to arrest of the Subaru and found no further contraband. The Subaru’s front plate ‘PC MA 2KHK32’ was also unassigned, active nonrenewable for a Cadillac SRX, registered to a Ryan Odell, out of Fitchburg.”

Officer Taylor said the Subaru had no valid registration status, and he confiscated both of the unlawfully attached license plates from the vehicle.

“My assisting unit, Officer [Carmen] Garcia, advised the Walmart employees the Subaru would have to be removed by private tow, as it was parked in a space in their private parking lot,” Officer Taylor said. “I transported Seth to the station for booking by the OIC [Officer-in-Charge] Sergeant [James] McKenna. I signed Seth’s warrant’s return of service. I filled out Massachusetts Uniform Citation [# redacted] for Unlawfully Attaching Registration Plates for Seth; the house officer, Officer Donahue, placed it in Seth’s property. I photographed the seized contraband and paraphernalia with the OIC’s Office iPhone, then placed the suspected methamphetamine for analysis, and smoking apparatus for trial, together in temporary evidence locker #001, and disposed of the lighter. I properly disposed of both plates in the recycling bin.”

In addition to the outstanding warrant, Seth Camp was charged with the following violations/offenses:

• Possess Class B Drug
• Number Plate Violation to Conceal ID

Camp was scheduled to be arraigned on August 19, 2025, in Leominster District Court, but failed to appear. As a result, a default warrant was issued for his arrest.

Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story took place in August, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to obtain the court documents. FOIAs are time-consuming.

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