Drug crop in hidden caves

[dsyfer]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...19-2862,00.html

 

Mark Buttler

 

January 25, 2008 12:00am

 

SECRET caves dug beneath a suburban house have been used to grow a marijuana crop.

 

Police executed a search warrant on a home in Deer Park expecting to find a hydroponic lighting and cultivation set-up yesterday morning.

 

They initially found nothing, but Powercorp officials involved in the raid said there was an unusually high use of electricity at the property, indicating a concealed use.

 

They followed a trail of wiring that stretched under the Neale Rd house to two purpose-built caves.

 

Officers from the Altona North regional response unit found 75 plants being cared for under lights.

 

It is not known how the holes were constructed under the 1970s property.

 

The plants' growers had cut holes into floorboards at the bottom of a wardrobe to make a hidden hatch to reach the crop.

 

Police were last night questioning a 47-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man over the discovery.

[freddie]

They initially found nothing, but Powercorp officials involved in the raid said there was an unusually high use of electricity at the property, indicating a concealed use

 

Sounds like they got busted because their power use was high. I haven't heard of that happening before.

[jimbojones5678]

Hmmm....that sure blows the idea that power company's don't monitor or question usage levels if in fact that is how they found it.

 

Jimbo

[RevenanT]

Well that sucks. Sounds like they had the perfect setup only got a bit too greedy.

 

Considering the lighting required for 75 plants their usage would have been higher than normal especially if they were living there as well. Still would have been nice to know what the usage was. Everyones allways been cautious about high usage rates, however it'd be nice to know what kind of levels attract suspicion.

 

Or the police could have received information from somebody and are just using the high usage rates to protect their source.

 

Paranoia : On.

[dsyfer]

when I hear caves, I think 4-5,000 watts plus+??

 

Which can be explained real easy in some houses (my neighbours elec bill is $1200 a quarter and he doesn't grow, but has a few plasmas and and a shit load of computers)

 

My guess is the house didn't contain enough stuff to warrant such a high usage, so they started looking.

 

So if you have a cave and don't steal power, make sure you have a shit load of electrical stuff inside.

[Pam]

CRAP

Well so much for my underground room! I guess I'll have to unplug everything else in the house while running the lights!

 

At least I haven't dug in too far yet.

 

I have to wonder if the power bill is the REAL REASON..... or if maybe they got a tip and didn't want to divulge the source.

Edited January 25, 2008 by Granny

[sunnycoaststoner]

granny, i wouldnt let it worry you. this one is in australia. your not going to have the power usage that these guys did unless you are running mega lights for 75 plants.

[BentBuddha]

I think the most likely scenario is they were dobbed in by someone and the police checked the power company to see how much they were using. I doubt a private elec company is going to scan ppls bills and send high ones to the police. Not good for business. They know if that were the case most growers would pack up, costing the elec company a lot of money. Can't back it up, but that's what i believe happens

[Pam]

Thanx guys ya probably right. I only plan to use 1, 1000w HPS. It just creeped me out how it was so similar to what my thread was about...

I'm good. I have to move it outdoors, but I plan to use the white greenhouse as cover.

Just waiting for spring and the ground to thaw

Edited January 26, 2008 by Granny

[mull]

Why they had 2 powercor officials on the raid is a puzzle.

 

Powercor distribute electricity (poles or underground to your house). Several other companies compete to sell it to you. A bit like the phone companies do with the phone lines all owned by telstra.

 

So in these caves, a company other than powercor would have been collecting the powerbill e.g tru energy, origin energy, ergon energy, power direct etc.

 

The power seller, would be the one who alerted powercor. Which makes no sense, because that means they will be cutting out a good product using customer.

If the power bill wasn't paid, that would explain it. Or a fault.

 

Large loads can be explained now days. Some homes have a split cycle in each room for example.

 

A guess is the powercor officials were invited along by the cops.