California Home Power Bill Prompts Pot Probe (Police find computers and dishwasher, but no drugs)

Yahoo ^ | March 28, 2004

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CARLSBAD, Calif. - When police noticed Dina Dagy's family was spending $250 to $300 a month on electricity, they suspected a marijuana farm was flourishing under high-intensity lights inside their suburban home.

What they found when they showed up with a drug-sniffing dog and a search warrant was a wife and mother who does several loads of laundry a day, keeps a dishwashing machine going, has three electricity-guzzling computers and three kids who can't remember to turn the lights out when they leave a room.

"It's hard to believe a high utility bill would be enough to issue a state warrant," said Dagy, who is demanding the Police Department issue a written apology.

Authorities say they have already apologized verbally several times and were only following proper procedures. Tracking down marijuana growers by reviewing electricity bills, they say, is a common practice.

"I understand they feel something isn't appropriate here, but it is very much consistent with how search warrants are prepared," said police Lt. Bill Rowland.

When authorities noticed how high the bill for the Dagy home was, they sent a police dog to the neighborhood, and it reacted as though it had smelled drugs.

They also noticed the family had put its trash out that morning, something police say drug growers often do to hide the evidence. In the Dagys' case, however, it was trash day.

When officers returned on March 19 with a search warrant, Dagy was volunteering at her son's second-grade class. She was heading back to her car when police arrived at the school, and she returned home and let them into the house.

They found nothing illegal, and she says she feels fortunate she wasn't in her son's classroom when they arrived.

"I would have been so embarrassed," she said, "and my son would have died: `They're taking your mommy away!'"

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The police solicit feedback at this address:  http://www.ci.carlsbad.ca.us/contact/?sendto=Police

All comments become part of the public record, so don't send them a copy of this article over and over again.

[farmfriend]

Figures!

[Samwise]

Oh, fercryingoutloud.

[Abcdefg]

Did anyone see evidence of a husband or a job mentioned in this story?
It seems mom is involved with her kids and that is a good thing, but who is paying the bills? Okay, probably none of my business. I'll just keep sending that check to Uncle Sucker.

[klute]

The word "wife" usually indicates there is a "husband"...well....except maybe in San Francisco.

[laredo44]

She was heading back to her car when police arrived at the school

How did the cops know she was at the school, and why didn't they just wait till she got home?

[LadyDoc]

there is something more behind this than a 300 dollar electricity bill...but I bet the cops don't want to make the rest of the evidence public...

[.38sw]

"It's hard to believe a high utility bill would be enough to issue a state warrant," said Dagy, who is demanding the Police Department issue a written apology.

Authorities say they have already apologized verbally several times and were only following proper procedures. Tracking down marijuana growers by reviewing electricity bills, they say, is a common practice.

"I understand they feel something isn't appropriate here, but it is very much consistent with how search warrants are prepared," said police Lt. Bill Rowland.

Sooooo, reviewing power bills is consistent with how search warrants are prepared? Did they have a warrant to review power bills? Did they just waltz on down to the power company and ask to look at everyone's power bills? And on top of that, the family had put out their trash! Now, there's suspicious behavior! A high power bill, and putting out your trash. Look out, folks! An obvious marijuana grower right in your neighborhood!

[Fiddlstix]

PING

[gawd]

exactly against whom are we waging this "war on drugs"

[MamaTexan]

exactly against whom are we waging this "war on drugs"

Whomever the state can use for revenue generation.

[BenLurkin]

"It's hard to believe a high utility bill would be enough to issue a state warrant,"

I'd say it is d_mn impossible to belive.

What the h_ll is going on?

[Ken H]

"It's hard to believe a high utility bill would be enough to issue a state warrant,"

I'd say it is d_mn impossible to belive.

What the h_ll is going on?

It's all about the war on drugs' gravy train. Looks like the Feds had their meathooks in this one. From another thread--

Misha Piastro, spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego, said that although the DEA headed the investigation that led to 24 county arrests and the seizure of thousands of high-grade pot plants, the Carlsbad search was more of an offshoot of the larger investigation.

Carlsbad family seeks apology in fruitless pot raid

[Clinging Bitterly]

I'd like to think the cops weren't looking at my power bill (or any other private financial business) without a warrant. And I'd hope they had better things to do that take notice of when I took out the trash.

I guess anybody's power bill is theirs for the asking though, and what is seen outside of solid walls is fair game.

Around here the cops dedicate a good portion of their time to snooping around for the stuff, but it's mostly small time grows like this rental house in Carlsbad. Once in a great while though, they'll get out into the farms and do their snooping there, and I must admit they have found some fairly large scale operations when they get out of town. In a recent bust, they found a huge building, mostly underground, with an underground diesel generator to supply power to the lights and such. And yes, a key piece of information used in securing the warrant was the guy's bill from the fuel supplier.

I think there are more important things that need doing though. If the time and resources used in enforcing laws against marijuana (a plant) were used instead to curb meth use, things would be better all around. I suppose the cops' take on it is that they are charged with enforcing all of the laws, not just some. A good answer for that would be for the people to just eliminate those laws. Imagine, having all that time and manpower currently used searching people's apartments for contraband plants being used instead to fight something that's really bad.

[suzyq5558]

OMG! what a horrible thing to do to yourself.

[Clinging Bitterly]

If I remember the story behind the picture, the woman was already in trouble in the first photo. I saw it posted here on FR a while back. A Google image search will reveal other examples (usually a series of police mug shots) that show various stages of those distinct and very typical deformities that develop in meth users. The NADCP should be putting those pictures (and maybe photos of their neglected or abused children)on their TV commercials instead of focusing on pot as they do now. I personally know a whole lot of people who use one or the other of those substances, and the meth users are a lot worse off than the potheads. I don't know if there is much hope for them, but people need to see what it does and hopefully will not start using it. My three best friends from school days in Florence are already dead because of it, and sometimes it seems like most of the ones still alive are on it. I don't really regret experimenting with some of the things we tried in our younger days, but I am glad I never used that stuff.