Elderly man busted snorting cocaine during traffic stop

An elderly US man has been arrested after snorting cocaine in front of a policeman during a traffic stop.

The 73-year-old, who has not been named, had been driving without his headlights on on a rainy night in Seattle on December 1 when he was pulled over by Officer Nic Abts-Olsen, the Seattle Times reports.

After checking his licence and registration, Olsen had walked back to the man's Toyota, about to let him off with a warning, when he saw the man pour a white substance out of a glass vial.

He knocked on the driver's window, startling the septuagenarian and causing the substance to spill over his hands and the floor of the car.

"What is that? Are you kidding? You're about to snort coke on the side of the road?" Olsen says.

 "No, it was nothing," the driver replies.

He then feebly tries to pass off the substance as being "vitamin pills".

When Olsen points out the suspicious substance looks nothing like vitamins, he says, "I know, I don't understand".

He eventually admitted it was cocaine, police said, and he was arrested for drug possession.