delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is аn appeal from a judgment rendered as the result of a verdict of guilty, by a jury, in a trial of appellant on the charge of unlawful possession of lottery books, lists, slips and numbers.- -
Appellant contends that his arrest was unlawful and therefore two bags and the-contents thereof, seized, as a- result of the unlawful arrest, were not admissible in evidence- against him.
On August 31, 1951, about 2:30 P.M., Sergeant Cohen of the Baltimore City Police Departments with another officer,- both in plain сlothes, was in a private automobile in Baltimore and saw a Plymouth automobile with one man in it parked on Madison Street. Sergeant Cohen testified that another car, carrying two- colored men, approached thе Plymouth, slowed' down without stopping,' and one' of the occupants, as it came alongside, handed a paсkage into thé front window of the Plymouth. “His hand went all the way in the other car window.” Both cárs’ started away. The officers- followed -the Plymouth, which made a right turn into Edison Highway. They went around that car, which pulled over to the curb and stopped. Sеrgeant Cohen got Out and walked over to the Plymouth. The driver of the car, the appellant, Lingner, spoke to the Sergeant, saying: “Hi Sergeant.” The Sergeant then identified himself as a police .officer and asked: “Where is the package that the man .just -handed you in the car?” The. Sergeant said that appellant “reached to the flоor of the car and handed it out the window, and said here it is, it doesn’t belong to me.” - The package handed out рroved- to be a bag similar- to á bank depository bag, ■ with a- lock-: on- it. *505 Sergeant Cohen then looked in the car and on the floor of the car on the front right hand side was another similar package. The officer placеd the man under arrest and took him and the bags to the police station. Appellant still insisted that the bags did not belong tо him. He said he did not have the keys. The officer broke the locks off both bags. In the bag which was handed him was found $414.00, 77 lottery sliрs, 2251 numbers representing $453.75 “in play”. The other bag contained 626 lottery slips, 5571 numbers, representing $450.21 “in play”. The officer admittеd that he did not know what was in the bags until he opened them and he had seen no violation of the law in his presencе, and that he put the appellant under arrest “to find out what was in the bags”. The title to the Plymouth was listed to Ambrose Lingner.
Thе appellant said that two colored men threw the packages on the floor of his car and he startеd after them to find out “why they throwed them at me”. He denied all through the case that the bags belonged to him. He said he did not hand either of the bags to the officer, but that the officer took them. Over objection the bags were admitted in evidence.
The single contention in this case by the appellant is that the two bags and the contents thereof, сonsisting of lottery slips and money, were not admissible in evidence. As pointed out in
Baum v. State,
In the case now before this Court the аppellant claims that these bags, offered in evidence, were thrown in his car, and he started after the othеr car to find out why they were thrown in his automobile. He stoutly denied that the bags belonged to him or that he knew their source. It was said in
Baum v. State, supra,
As to the argument that there is not sufficient connection between the appellant and the bags, probability is the only requirement. If there is any doubt, the decision is on the weight of the evidence, not on any question of admissibility. Unlawful possession of the bags was an essential incident of the crime charged.
Goldstein v. State,
Judgment affirmed, with costs.
