Off-duty police officer overdoses after grabbing bowling ball with fentanyl in the finger holes.

Officers in Hazmat suites tested other finger holes for traces of the deadly synthetic opioid.

KTTV—A night of bowling at Pins and Pints in Richards, Missouri, almost ended in tragedy when an off-duty officer picked up a bowling ball with traces of fentanyl in the finger holes.

Sergeant Randy McCade loves to bowl. “It’s a way to unwind, you know?” he tells KTTV/Substance from the emergency room of St. Anthonius Hospital in Richards.

Last Wednesday night, it was he, and not the pins, that got knocked down.

It was just a normal weeknight, McCade recalls. His partner, Officer Steve “Strike-out” Strickland, had just come back with a pitcher of Bud and loaded nachos, when McCade picked up the ball. When the officer, a 6 year veteran of the Richards PD, slid his fingers into the finger holes he felt a strange, numbing sensation—but chalked it up to the adrenaline rush of his tenth frame. He took a deep breath.

That’s when the scoreboard blinked and began to blur. The world started to spin. Suddenly, McCade couldn’t breathe; his heart pounded, and his vision shrunk to the narrow lane ahead of him before it flickered out completely.

“The last thing I remember is watching the ball fall into the gutter.”

Officer Strickland knew about fentanyl—how the drug was so potent that even seeing it up close could lead to a fatal overdose. He’d heard about how the drug, now found on random dollar bills, has sickened people all over the country. So he knew he had to act fast. He ran to his squad car and rushed back in with Narcan. “You’re gonna be OK man! I won’t let you get outta this game that easy, bud!” he yelled, tearing up.

“You’ll do anythin’ to get outta losing, huh?”

EMTs arrived at the scene. “Careful! Don’t touch or look at the fentanyl ball!” Strickland yelled, pointing to a ball covered in police tape.

“Uh .. yeah… thanks for the heads-up,” the EMT said before loading McCade into the ambulance.

Several days later, McCade thoughtfully slurped his Jell-O from a hospital bed and mused about his close call.

“It’s getting bad out there. If a man can’t enjoy a few pints of Bud and a game, without coming into contact with a highly potent synthetic opioid, is anywhere safe?”

At press time, McCade overdosed again, after encountering fentanyl that had made its way into his gelatin dessert.