SARATOGA SPRINGS - A man accused of putting a drug into another man's drink at a popular Caroline Street restaurant was later caught with an eyedropper containing the recreational drug MDMA, police said.

Police were called to Gaffney's Restaurant early Sunday after a patron spotted a stranger putting a foreign substance into his drink. Police said the patron confronted the man who left the restaurant.

The patron described the man to police who later spotted a man matching the description walking out of another Caroline Street business, police said.

Police said they stopped Nicholas T. Lareau, 30, of Saratoga Springs and found the eyedropper in his pocket and a vial with liquid inside that tested positive for MDMA, police said.

Saratoga Springs police Lt. Robert Jillson said investigators don't know why Lareau would put MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy or molly, in another's man's drink. He also said that they have heard allegations of people being drugged, mostly in sex offense cases, but they have not had a case like this before where a man was allegedly seen drugging another person's drink.

"Years ago, we had it purported, but nothing substantiated," Jillson said.

Lareau was charged with attempted second-degree assault and misdemeanor drug possession. Arraigned in city court, he was sent to the Saratoga County jail on $2,000 bail.

Police said the patron at Gaffney's did not drink any of the substance and they thanked the bar's staff for calling the police.

This is not Lareau's first arrest. He was charged with driving while intoxicated after a Sept. 15 arrest on Hodgeman Street in Saratoga Springs, according to a report in the Saratogian. Saratoga Springs City Court said the DWI is still pending. His next court date on that charge is Friday, Dec. 7.