‘You can never be too careful’: Halifax women allege they were drugged at bar

Two Halifax-area women are speaking out after they allege they were drugged at a bar over the weekend.

Brittany Bernard and Paige Fitzpatrick went out Saturday night to celebrate Fitzpatrick’s upcoming graduation from college. The pair say they had a few drinks at home — but were not intoxicated — before heading downtown to the Toothy Moose on Argyle Street.

About 20 minutes after they arrived at the bar, Fitzpatrick say a man offered to buy her a shot and drink. That’s when things turned from celebratory to scary for the lifelong friends.

“We’re assuming it was the gentleman who bought me the drink because that’s the only drink we had that whole night. But I don’t know who he was. He was just buying me a drink and I thought it was innocent,” Fitzpatrick told Global News.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We're assuming it was the gentleman who bought me the drink because that's the only drink we had that whole night. But I don't know who he was. He was just buying me a drink and I thought it was innocent," Fitzpatrick told Global News.

READ: How 3 women may have saved a stranger from date rape

Fitzpatrick says the man knocked Bernard’s drink from her hand and offered to buy her a new one, but she declined. Instead, the two women shared the drink that was purchased for Fitzpatrick.

“Instantly the both of us were just completely out of it,” Fitzpatrick said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Instantly the both of us were just completely out of it," Fitzpatrick said.

“We walked to the dance floor and we both fell on our faces and we lost complete feeling of our body and all consciousness, like we couldn’t remember where we were or what was going on.”

Fitzpatrick and Bernard say they went to the washroom inside the bar, where they both vomited. Bernard was able to call her mother, who picked the women up and took them to the emergency room.

Fitzpatrick says they had to be taken inside the hospital in wheelchairs, where they remained for several hours.

“I don’t remember anything at the hospital. The only thing I remember is waking up in the hospital bed with an IV,” she said.

The women say they had blood work and an electrocardiogram (EKG) done to make sure their hearts were all right. Ultimately, Fitzpatrick says medical professionals were unable to determine what the women had consumed.

“They weren’t able to determine what was in our system but they said from our story and how we were responding to what they gave us, it was definitely something that was, that we had been drugged,” Fitzpatrick said.

“It was absolutely, probably one of the scariest nights of our lives honestly.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It was absolutely, probably one of the scariest nights of our lives honestly."

WATCH: USB-sized device can tell you if your drink has been spiked

The women reported the incident to police on Sunday after leaving the hospital.

Halifax Regional Police Const. Carol McIsaac confirmed that officers were informed that two women reported having their drinks tampered with sometime after 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 22.

“It’s concerning anytime we receive this type of report,” said McIsaac.

“It’s certainly not something that commonly happens.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's concerning anytime we receive this type of report," said McIsaac.</p><p>"It's certainly not something that commonly happens."

McIsaac says officers are still in the early stages of their investigation and will be combing through any video surveillance the bar has in place. Police are encouraging anyone who may have had a similar incident to report it.

“Often times, by the time they do attend the hospital or do realize their drinks may have been spiked, there’s not a lot of evidence still because it does leave their system very quickly,” she said.

“It is important they they report it to us because we need to be aware that something like this is happening in our city.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It is important they they report it to us because we need to be aware that something like this is happening in our city."

Police are reminding people to never leave your drinks unattended and not to accept drinks from people you don’t know.

“If somebody offers to buy you a drink, great but attend the bar with that person and be present when the bartender makes the drink and accept the drink from the bartender as opposed to the person who’s offering to purchase the drink for you,” said McIsaac.

READ MORE: Dalhousie University issues warning after drinks allegedly spiked at party

As for Bernard and Fitzpatrick, they decided to go public with their ordeal in hopes of spreading awareness and preventing something similar — or worse — from happening to someone else.

“You can never be too careful with who you trust when you’re out and about, especially when you’re drinking and you’re in that type of atmosphere,” said Bernard.

Anyone with information about the incident over the weekend is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.