Windsor's police chief blames human error for $25,000 worth of cocaine that went missing from the Windsor police drug vault.
Back in August 2013, police seized 9 ounces of cocaine during a drug bust but a few months later, the evidence was inadvertently destroyed during a routine purge.
The case went to trial and the offender was found guilty this month but the judge criticized Windsor police for the lost evidence.
Chief Al Frederick says in the past ten years, they have dealt with 4,500 cases and this is the only case where evidence went missing.
He says there were no security breaches in the vault so the drugs were accidentally incinerated before the trial.
A random check Thursday night of other evidence found everything was in order.
Frederick says this was an accident.
"This went missing prior to court proceeding so it was an active case," says Chief Frederick. "No one would actively take drugs earmarked for courts because you are going to get detected quickly which in this case, it absolutely happened like that."
Since 2013, police have taken measures to prevent evidence from being accidentally destroyed.
There are more security cameras, there are more police officers overseeing the process and police have stopped the media from visiting the vault for footage.