Beach police: High electric bill lead to marijuana bust

[FruityBud]

Police found 118 marijuana plants in a home in the 4900 block of Mandan Road earlier this month, according to a police spokesman.

An unusually high electricity bill alerted police to a possible marijuana-growing operation, the warrant said.

According to the warrant, police conducted surveillance at the home and checked its electricity bill, which at times exceeded those of similarly sized homes in the neighborhood by about $400. Police also found growing equipment, scales, ledgers, packing materials and smoking devices, said Officer Adam Bernstein, a police spokesman.

Eric Wayne Haxter, 33, was charged with manufacturing marijuana, according to court records. His preliminary trial hearing is scheduled for June 11.

hxxp://shuurl.com/L4919

 

[JohninWI]

thanks!

Anyone know of a reference about "how much is too much"? It seems to me people get busted on electrical bills for pretty large operation like this one, not the guy running a single 400W. Any thoughts?

 

[umbra]

a 400 w grow adds about $35 to my bill...so to have a bill thats $400/month more than everyone else...well thats alot. I own toys that would easily account for that kind of consumption.

MIG welder (220v@ 180A)
TIG welder
compressor
bridgeport milling machine
south bender lathe
plasma cutter

watching my electric meter spin

 

[WeedHopper]

Yeah,,I believe there is more to the story then that. Its almost always someone talking.

 

[cubby]

It says that police conducted seveilance and checked the electric bill. It would be interesting to know wich came first. I would bet Cowboy's right, somebody talked. While on surveilence the cops saw some suspitious people comming and going, then checked the electric bill in order to get the search warrant. They credit the electric bill rather than the snitch so they can continue to use the snitch.

 

[StoneyBud]

Cops are liars. They never tell the truth.

Hell, they might have done an illegal search to confirm a snitches tale and then just made their story fit the end result they wanted.

They may have a guy at the power company who informs them when he sees an out of scale power bill. Then they just watch the place for awhile, follow you around or see who comes and goes, run plate checks on everyone who goes in to ID them, looks for prior busts in anyone going in.

To account for 400 dollars in additional power consumption, a grow op would have to be using a crap load of lights.

118 full grown plants on my scale of plant maturity would be about 23, 400 watt HPS over 23 grow areas the size I use.

At 35 dollars a month per/light, that would be a total of about 800 dollars total. Take away the average of maybe 200 per/month and it would be near the amount he's credited with.

This kind of bust spells G-R-E-E-D.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard the same lines:

"If I grow 20 plants and get a pound from each, and schedule the harvest times to create a continuous grow, I can make a killing!"

I imagine that story is very popular in prison.

Stay small. Stay free. Grow your own. Don't get greedy.

The other way to spell Greed is S-T-U-P-I-D.

If you really want to know how to grow for profit, the most people who discuss how they've done it are in prison. Just give it a try and you have a good chance of meeting a lot of them.

Seriously, is it worth the risk? I-don't-think-so.

 

[NYC_Diesel x Jack_Herer]

Police found 118 marijuana plants in a home in the 4900 block of Mandan Road earlier this month, according to a police spokesman.

When are the police/media/lawmakers going to realize that it does not matter how many plants you have? It is beyond stupid to have the number of plants as the sentencing guideline and what matters in grow ops. Did he have 118 clones without a single bud on them? Or did he have 118 9 foot trees in a cathedral producing a lb. each? Telling us he had 118 plants really tells us nothing media. This article is horrible actually. His bill was $400 more a month than the average in the neighborhood, but the writer doesn't tell us the average in the neighborhood!!!!! So is the average $100 and his is $500, or is the average $1,000 and his is $1,400....the title of the article says the people were busted BECAUSE of the high electric bill, but the following sentence, "According to the warrant, police conducted surveillance at the home and checked its electricity bill" leads me to believe they conducted surveillance THEN looked at the electric bill....quite frankly whoever wrote this article is a HORRIBLE reporter...

 

[Yoga]

Not mentioned in the story:
They found him in a storage shed with some illegals and trimming materials.

 

[NYC_Diesel x Jack_Herer]

Not mentioned in the story:
They found him in a storage shed with some illegals and trimming materials.

:yeahthat:

 

[The Effen Gee]

If you have a few can fans and an ac unit, I can see the bill getting pretty tall really quick...

 

[SherwoodForest]

I guess the real trouble starts when someone does a grow operation of size in a small residential place. There are just to many people around, some have great eye sight, some hear like bats and some have intuition like a suesayer. If you are going to atempt a big grow like this, MOVE! Go rent a place in the country or something, and just plain forget about having company come over. I knew the electricity bill is a bust, even though I have been told by some folks that it isn't. I'm sure the cops used the electric bill as an excuse to get a warrant signed by a judge, even though the real info came from a informant. And I bet the informant was the lady next door that sees everything, hears everything and pretty much does nothing but stick her nose into other folks business. Where I live one neighbor has a 2000 dollar a month electric bill, another spends around 6000 a month, my bill is around 100 a month. In my case I could probly boost my bill 20 times over and not raise an eyebrow. But if some nosy doo gooder neighbor gets a hair up their **** shoot, the cops would use the bill as a reason for a search.

 

[LassChance]

thanks!

Anyone know of a reference about "how much is too much"? It seems to me people get busted on electrical bills for pretty large operation like this one, not the guy running a single 400W. Any thoughts?

I think one 400 or 600 HPS probably isnt even noticed. Some people like the heat turned higher or the AC cooler than others. Just to be on the safe side, Ive decided to not use my AC this summer except on the most killer-hot days, figuring my electric bill will be about the same or even lower. If I do a winter grow, I'll rely on my propane heater instead of the electric heat.

Still, I imagine nobody will notice unless you suddenly hook up two or three 1000 watters...

What this article does NOT say is, did the electric company notice and alert the cops? Or did the cops have a suspicion and ask the electric company? I mean...WHY did the cops check the meter, in the first place?
The electric company is in the biz of making money...so I wouldnt think they would care, long as you pay your bill. So, I wonder if the cops wernt already suspicious?

Lass

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Good way not to get busted for a high electric bill is to run 2-4 thousand watt lamps or even more until the police come a'knockin, just to find out you were growing tomatoes! I don't believe they can aquire another warrant afterwards. Or I believe this is just in Canada. Either way, it might keep the popo's off your arse for a while afterwards.

 

[nvthis]

No one gets busted for a high electrical bill. The electrical company likes money, same as everyone else. They ain't saying nuthin' until you don't pay. The police department doesn't get a stack of bills to go over every month to see who's electricity consumption went up. Cops ask to see specific bills (which the electrical company doesn't have to show them without a warrant) of people they aready suspect. If the electrical company made a habit of turning in all their gross users that paid on time, they would only be screwing themselves. It just doesn't happen that way.
If it did happen like that, why then did they ever need flir? They wouldn't, because they would already know who was doing what. Pay your bill on time, don't tell nobody what you are doing, don't sell to anybody and don't sweat it. I could run up a $10,000 a month bill and if I am there every month, checkbook in hand, they will gladly take that check and that would be the end of it. First and foremost it is a finance driven business. As usual. They're not gonna burn their best costumers if they don't have to.

 

[smokeytimes]

Not so sure about this with my Electric Co. They want everyone to jion in there Green savings plan where they can control your AC and other high power devices during summer months to help reduce carbon footprint. But I doubt they would just call up the po po to tell them we have xxx number of people with high bills this month. I would bet this was a snitch that got the cops called into this.

Good way not to get busted for a high electric bill is to run 2-4 thousand watt lamps or even more until the police come a'knockin, just to find out you were growing tomatoes! I don't believe they can aquire another warrant afterwards. Or I believe this is just in Canada. Either way, it might keep the popo's off your arse for a while afterwards.

 

[cubby]

Not so sure about this with my Electric Co. They want everyone to jion in there Green savings plan where they can control your AC and other high power devices during summer months to help reduce carbon footprint. But I doubt they would just call up the po po to tell them we have xxx number of people with high bills this month. I would bet this was a snitch that got the cops called into this.

Don't join there green savings plan. Not that it has anything to do with a grow op but they sit in an airconditioned building and decide to cut your power because your AC is using too much power. No joke they do it. Or they charge you more for using increased electric at peak hours.

 

[houseoftreasure]

I have just had an inspiration. I have just decided to disappear. These practices and programs are all pissing me the f off. I believe I shall fall into and between the cracks and just fall off the grid. Wind turbine powered electric for me, fairly cheap to construct and no need for ANY wires to come to or from my place. No longer on the grid. You can, if you are handy, build one for less than $4000 that will be AMPLE enough to power a large enough grow op and support a single house.

If I find any links to morrow I will connect them. Till then, the mrs. just pulled in And I am off to make her squeal.

Peace
_him

 

[SherwoodForest]

Sounds great, and you can use the same wind power to pull water out of the ground, that way your only bills will be food and intranet.

 

[NYC_Diesel x Jack_Herer]

honestly you don't have much to worry about unless you are using a ton of power. When I put in my operation it added 1200 watss of flowering light and another 300 of vegetative light, plus another 225 in fans and pumps. So I added 1725 watts in my grow op to my power usage. At the same time I changed all the bulbs in my house from incandescent to CFL's, cut down the heat and AC usage, started making sure to unplug vampire appliances when not using like chargers, etc....and my electric bill only went up about 5%.

I don't see how a small op is going to be detected by the electric company. However, I do worry about the future of electricity usage. Currently most people just have a meter. But I cringe to think about the future of technology. If it gets to the point whre they can monitor your power consumption on a constant basis it will be much more obvious...."Gee...I wonder why therte is a huge power spike every single day at this house from EXACLTY 8pm to 8AM".... That klind of thing.

 

[WeedHopper]

Forget about the Electric companies. Its loose lips that are sinking these PPL's ship,,not a high power bill. Its almost ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS,,LOOSE LIPS,,no more and no less.:fid: