I have a few questions. How did the police get a warrant to search your property? they had to have had a little more than someone's word to get a judge to sign a search and seizure warrant....and I don't understand why they would just take the plants and not the equipment, being as it is evidence. 2 1000w lights...how many plants are we talking here? I'd be suing the shit out of somebody...they have to have a good damn reason to get a warrant like pics...vents leading outdoors? looking in a window...making a buy....not just some douche-bags word as gospel! and then the whole craig's list post...cmon guy do I really have to tell you how shady that is?
All excellent questions. When the cops showed up they did NOT have a warrant. They said they had an anonymous call about excessive fan noise. Now, there was no fan noise you could hear from outside, no outside venting, no FLIR signature, no odor, etc. It was a very clean, discrete setup. I'm a fairly cautious guy that way....my problem was telling a couple of friends what I was doing, and it came back around to bite me. Anyway, the cops said they would get a warrant if I didn't consent to search, and if I forced them to do that, the threat was that they would totally tear up my house rather than just the garage. I didn't let them in until I talked to a very good lawyer, who said that they certainly would get a warrant (which they were doing even as we spoke) and I should sign the consent to search.
The law in Florida says they can take just the plants, and photograph and disable the equipment but not take it as evidence. That's what they did, but they did a half-assed job of disabling the op - slashed the tents and cut some wires. It could all be brought back on line very easily - maybe that's what they're hoping for, who knows? I'm selling it or giving it away. I put up the Craigslist ad - there's no law against selling that stuff, and there's nothing left here for them to come after, so why not? I don't get what's "shady" about it.
They took 12 fairly mature plants and a bunch of seedlings and a few small ones in veg. They say it's weed, I say it was green beans.
The lawyer has some interesting ideas about how to attack this, which I can't discuss here.
Who do you think I should be suing?
Peace!
