SABATTUS — What started as a possible seat-belt violation turned into a chase and ended with drug charges Monday for a local man.

Joshua Getchell, 24, of 143 Dube Drive was traveling on Crowley Road near Settlement restaurant at roughly 1:30 a.m. when Sabattus patrol officer Andrew Levesque noticed Getchell wasn’t strapped in and pulled over his vehicle, police said.

After checking Getchell’s driver’s license, Levesque learned it had been suspended.

Levesque cited Getchell for the two violations, then started to take an inventory of Getchell’s vehicle because it had to be towed and impounded.

That’s when Getchell grabbed the handle of a 5-gallon bucket sitting in the passenger area and fled the scene, police said. Getchell was running for the woods and had gotten about 50 yards from his vehicle when Levesque caught up with him at the edge of the woods. When Getchell was nabbed, he resisted arrest, said patrol officer Gary Baillargeon, who took custody of the crime scene evidence later Monday.

Police confiscated about 3.6 pounds of marijuana stashed in the gray bucket and in a brown paper bag found in a burlap sack in the passenger area of Getchell’s vehicle. Police also found five Suboxone pills, a prescription narcotic medication for treatment of opioid dependence, according to the company’s website.

Baillargeon said Getchell was charged with:

* Unlawful trafficking of schedule Z drug.

* Possession of schedule W drug.

* Operating after suspension.

* Refusing to submit to arrest or detention.

He also was cited for a seat-belt violation.

He was released Monday on $1,000 cash bail from Androscoggin County Jail, a jail worker said.