In early 1984, Metallica was booked on a UK tour with the Rodz, Exciter, and Twisted Sister, but the tour got cancelled due to, believe it or not, poor ticket sales. Metallica had studio time booked at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, but that studio was booked for another band while Metallica was supposed to be touring the UK, which left them effectively stranded. Music for Nations, the record label Metallica was under contract with in the UK at the time, rented out a flat for the band just so they had a place to stay. Meanwhile, Anthrax was in the country at the same time for promotional work for their debut album, Fistful of Metal, and since both bands had become well acquainted while Metallica was on the East Coast recording Kill 'Em All, Anthrax decided to hang out with Metallica.
Anyway, one day, Cliff wanted to buy a new Walkman (anyone remember those?), so he and Scott took the tube into town. As they got off, they were detained by a cop, who assumed that these two long-haired dudes must be suspicious, who then said, "You can make it easier on yourselves if you just admit to the drugs you're carrying." This caught Scott and Cliff by surprise. Scott did not partake in recreational drug use outside of drinking, but Cliff was a pothead, and if the cops found even a single joint on him, they were both fucked. Nonetheless, both rockers were arrested on suspicion of drugs, and they made Scott and Cliff strip down to their underwear and threw them in their cells...these cells didn't even have bars. It was just four solid walls, plus a sliding peephole thing. Well, they found pills in Cliff's pockets, which Cliff claimed to be cold medicine, but that became probable cause for them. The cops told Scott that they were taking Cliff with him to search the flat, and at that point, Scott immediately thought, "Oh no, we're fucked, because Cliff DEFINITELY has weed at the flat!" All he could think of at that point was the movie, Midnight Express, where he was in a foreign prison and no one would hear from him again. After maybe a few hours, the cops went into Scott's cell and brought his clothes back, ordering him to get dressed and meet up at the Police Captain's office. Scott did that, fearing he had a one-way ticket to Midnight Express, and he arrived to see Cliff Burton seated in front of the Captain with a smirk on his face, and Scott was thinking, "what's going on here?" The Captain then proceeded to apologize for the inconvenience, saying that the pills Cliff had on him were taken to the lab and really was over-the-counter cold medicine, and Scott just had enough and started lashing out with, "you fucking motherfucker!", "just because we have long hair doesn't mean we're fucking criminals", "the NYPD has better things to do than profiling long-haired guys with trumped up drug charges", and all this other rhetoric, and Cliff was lightly punching Scott's leg telling him to shut the fuck up. So after all these apologies, the cops released the rockers from custody and did not charge them with anything.
After they left the Police Station and were out of police earshot, Scott asked Cliff what happened, and Cliff explained that they went into the flat, saw Kirk Hammett practicing his guitar in the living room, searched the flat, came up empty, and returned to the station. Scott was relieved that there would be no further jail time, but there was still that million dollar question; how the fuck did the cops NOT find the weed? Did Cliff have some secret hidey hole to stash his contraband? Cliff's response was, "Where would be the first place you would look if you were a cop searching someone's home for drugs?" Scott said, "I don't know....maybe under the mattress or some shit like that?" Cliff said "Exactly! And where was the one place the cops did not look?" Holy shit! Cliff had the weed under the mattress all along, and because the cops never even bothered to look there, they never found the weed! Cliff never got that new Walkman, but they did celebrate their freedom with a few beers that night. Scott WOULD get arrested and actually get charged 13 years later for trespassing into the Yankees' Spring Training facility, but got the charges dropped after apologizing to then-Yankees owner George Steinbrenner on the Howard Stern Show. Yes, I know his Yankees-related arrest actually did get him in more trouble than the incident with Cliff Burton, but still, it is funny as fuck how the whole thing with him and Cliff getting arrested went down...especially since they literally got away with possession of marijuana.