ADAMS TWP — It was a years-long mystery. A whodunit that puzzled police. A riddle that riled road workers.

Week after week, month after month, year after year, they would turn up — plastic grocery bags filled with empty bottles — mostly the two-ounce size — of pure vanilla extract.

And always in the same vicinity. Assuredly, almost, as the sun rising in the east and teasingly as crop circles.

The road crew and police in March powwowed over the problem and came up with a plan: install trail cameras around the roads where the bags kept turning up.

“We thought we could catch the litterer that way,” said Bob Scanlon, Adams Township’s assistant police chief.

It didn’t take long — maybe a few days — for the plan to pay off. One of the cameras snapped the image of a maroon, 2004 Honda CR-V.

“We had the vehicle and the plate,” Scanlon said. And while they couldn’t identify the driver, they could tell from the hair style that it was a woman.

Officers were now on the lookout. On April 4, Sgt. Edward Lenz spotted the suspect vehicle at Crider and Myoma roads.

Mary A. Ranker, 61, of Cranberry Township was identified as the driver following the subsequent traffic stop about 4 p.m.

Lenz advised Ranker that he had stopped her in connection with the littering investigation. But he also smelled alcohol coming from the vehicle and she appeared impaired.

Believing she was responsible for all the empty vanilla bottles over all the years, the officer asked her how much she drank that day.

“Two vanillas” is all she had, Ranker replied, according to court documents.

A blood test eventually showed Ranker’s blood-alcohol level was 0.128 percent. A level of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated under state law.

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