Getting caught because of electricity bill?

[JayLookaLike]

Recently, a DEA Agent came to our "Street Law" class, and was talking to us about the various "drug" busts he'd been in. In one story, he told us that they caught a man growing Cannabis, merely because of his electricity bill. My question is, how can they justify that an electricity bill is enough for a search warrant? Also, what amount of electricity is enough to trigger such a search?

 

[KADE]

Answer - a crapload. It isn't really the jump... it is the consistancy of the jump. Unless you jumped up hundreds and hundreds of dollars it isnt' a big deal. If you keep your power bills paid, you'll never have a problem with leo.

I have a friend... who doesn't grow (but sells lol) and he has 4 1200w electric oil heaters going 24/7... and he has never had a visit.

 

[cyberquest]

yeah if you go from a $70 a month bill to a $400 a month bill then it might raise eye brows. but a 400w hps is using no more power then 4 100w bulbs being left on all day.

 

[cyberquest]

just to add you might see if ou electric company has a web site. ours does and one of the things you can look at is your usage history, our company shows a graph of your electric bill for each month over the past year.