An offer to trade marijuana for a gaming system, led to the arrest of a Hay Springs couple.

Christopher Ames, 30, and Casandra Agnes, 26, both of Hay Springs, were arrested on Sunday, Dec. 14, after they traded marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms for an Xbox gaming system and several video games.

During the week of Dec. 8, Ames answered an online ad offering an Xbox for sale in the Chadron area.  Ames, communicating via text with the seller, indicated he didn’t have any money, but would be willing to trade marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms for the gaming system. Unfortunately for Ames, the seller happened to be a trooper with the Nebraska State Patrol.

The Nebraska State Patrol, working in conjunction with the WING Drug Task Force and the Chadron Police Department, began an investigation and arranged for the trooper to meet the buyers in a parking lot in Chadron. During the meeting, the couple was taken into custody without incident after giving the trooper six grams of marijuana and two psychedelic mushrooms in exchange for the gaming system.

Three children, ages’ two, four and six, with the couple at the time of the deal, were placed in protective custody with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Ames was lodged in the Dawes County Jail on charges out of Box Butte, Dawes and Sheridan Counties to include Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, Manufacturing a Controlled Substance and Child Abuse.

Agnes was lodged in the Dawes County Jail on charges out of Dawes and Sheridan Counties to include Aiding and Abetting the Consummation of a Felony, Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, Manufacturing a Controlled Substance and Child Abuse.