Busted - Personal grow in Raleigh, NC, USA - Ask me anything (AMA :)

man glad I live in a mmj state.

Cops here don't have time to look at trash for a month for a small grower.

Thanks for the info, and sorry to read bs story from cops busting small grow for personnel use

for some things its easy to avoid a grow store (nutes, pots, etc) but when it comes to purchases like soil its far cheaper to buy in person than pay to ship heavy bags of soil (agreed?)

ive tried brands other than fox farm but i am partial to them. i havent been to a grow store in a good year and a half.

i need to get to one though. how do u guys suggest going to a grow store???? ive never been followed from a grow store as far as i could tell (i watched from the parking lot to the fwy to my driveway w/o ne1 following)

go in off hrs???

Not long after I began growing, I made my one and only stop at a grow shop.(non MMJ state) I headed into the shop, got what I went in after and when I came out to get in my car, I look across the 4 lane and holy shit... there sets a cop in the parking lot across the road, making serious eye contact with me! Needless to say, my underware didn't survive the incident. Well, I was already in for a penny and a pound at that point, so I just went ahead and loaded up and drove off. The fact that I was in a large city an hour from home was in my favor, but I most surely spent the next few days waiting for the knock knock... boom on my door in the middle of the night. It never came and thats been a few years ago now. Friends, I learned a valuable lesson from that cop though. It's pretty damn easy to gather a list of who's growing by watching a grow store parking lot. It's fair to say that 9 out of 10 people going into the shop aren't growing tomatoes and they know that. I should have known better. As someone on up this post said, Don't get lazy. I couldn't agree more. When you do, you're just writing the warrent for them.

What does all this say though for our friendly neighborhood grow stores? Guess who should be pissed off the very most about cops hangin around the parking areas of what is a legal business even in intolerant states? At what point is this harassment and impeding a business owners right to do business?

Cobnobuler What does all this say though for our friendly neighborhood grow stores? Guess who should be pissed off the very most about cops hangin around the parking areas of what is a legal business even in intolerant states? At what point is this harassment and impeding a business owners right to do business?

What it says is cops can get away with a lot of crap. Not new, and they do it in other situations. By rights, they shouldn't be able to do this any more than surveiling you because you're black. It's finally come to the point where buying dirt is evidence of a crime.

I always took my leaves too the woods and tucked them under some leaves and brush. If I had a secure, dry place I could have let them get nice and dry and crunchy and grind them up first. I was always VERY careful about putting anything in my trash; if it was incriminating it went in a dumpster somewhere, not in my trash. I have not been able to grow in the last year due to not having a place to live other than family (sucks big time), but hopefully that will change soon. I hope things work out for you OP.

roseypeach said:

that's why they invented hydro....

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what does that have to do with it?

you think since your in a mmj state you have the right to grow weed and others in the world don't just because it's "illegal"in a state don't make it right people are going to smoke to say you asking for trouble makes no sense smokers going to smoke yea may know the risk but someone so foolish to say you don't live in medical state shouldn't grow and is asking for trouble is STUPID SON!!!!!!! Grow a pair of BALLS and plant that seed FUCK THE POLICE

I live in a MMJ state and I have a MMJ license and I'm STILL careful about pulling into a grow shop and dumping leaves.

I know that I am within my protection of the law, but that dosent mean they wont kick down the door, rip up plants, take lights and fans and then just bounce with no charges held against me.
(that has happened here in the recent past)

Be careful everyone and to the OP, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us, as nasty as it may have been it is very useful and informative to those of us here.

Ok, so the information ive gathered from this post leaves these three rules:

1. DO NOT THROW ANYTHING IN THE TRASH FROM YOUR GROW ROOM (LEAVES, NUTE CONTAINERS, NET POTS, ETC.)

2. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM A GROW STORE, BUY FROM EBAY (SORRY GROW STORES )

3. DO NOT EVER TELL ANYONE ABOUT YOUR GROW ROOM


We should call those the 3 GOLDEN RULES, keep those rules and be stealth forever, break anyone of them and get ready for a knock knock joke.

WeedPublican said:

Ok, so the information ive gathered from this post leaves these three rules:

1. DO NOT THROW ANYTHING IN THE TRASH FROM YOUR GROW ROOM (LEAVES, NUTE CONTAINERS, NET POTS, ETC.)

2. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM A GROW STORE, BUY FROM EBAY (SORRY GROW STORES )

3. DO NOT EVER TELL ANYONE ABOUT YOUR GROW ROOM


We should call those the 3 GOLDEN RULES, keep those rules and be stealth forever, break anyone of them and get ready for a knock knock joke.

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There are other ways to get caught but those are the main three. *Former* girlfriends are one of the biggest reasons guys get busted; they break up and the first thing the girl wants to do is make the guy pay so she turns him in. Another stupid thing is either having too many lights / plants and alerting the power company, or stealing electricity; both of which will get you nailed. There are other things to finesse your op such as where to duct the heat so there is no infrared signature for pig helicopters. One last thing and this is a biggie: SMELL; some strains really smell pungent and there is no other smell like this. You have to figure out a way to neutralize the odor. You can go high tech with big carbon filters or low cost (but VERY effective) by using an ionic filter thingy to remove the offensive particles. You can make your own very effective carbon filter. I made one and it's easy and cheap. See the DIY section for it.

honeybread said:

Do you think there is a chance this site could be used as a source of gathering intelligence?

not related to your case, but I was just thinking about modern digital cameras, a lot of new ones have gps in the software.
It is also very easy to read the meta data in an image, so if one was unaware of this and uploaded an image of their grow taken with a gps camera, it would contain the exact coordanites.

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I too am curious about this, I noticed this on FB a while ago. I posted a picture that was sent to me by my Father-In Law, and I didn't know where it was taken. Then it just showed up in a tooltip. Fucking tripped balls!

potpimp said:

There are other ways to get caught but those are the main three. *Former* girlfriends are one of the biggest reasons guys get busted; they break up and the first thing the girl wants to do is make the guy pay so she turns him in. Another stupid thing is either having too many lights / plants and alerting the power company, or stealing electricity; both of which will get you nailed. There are other things to finesse your op such as where to duct the heat so there is no infrared signature for pig helicopters. One last thing and this is a biggie: SMELL; some strains really smell pungent and there is no other smell like this. You have to figure out a way to neutralize the odor. You can go high tech with big carbon filters or low cost (but VERY effective) by using an ionic filter thingy to remove the offensive particles. You can make your own very effective carbon filter. I made one and it's easy and cheap. See the DIY section for it.

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Oh yeah forgot that one! An ex girlfriend can turn real bad, if shes not your wife i'd say keep it to yourself.

Sounds like they were on to you and even if you were carefull about the trash they would have eventually found some other way to get you. In fact, it may have been a blessing that they found the leaves in the trash and busted you earlier than later. If it would have happened later they could have had a bigger bust with everything in full flower. Also, a friend could have come over and you could have sported him/her with a bud. They could have been watching the house and pulled that person over leaving your home, found the bud, and that would be distribution.
I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have found another way to get you since they were on to you and had a hard on for you. If no evidence was in the trash, they would have looked at the electric bill. Then heat sensing equipment. They could sniff around and say they smelled something or like I said, they could pull over a friend leaving your house with a bud, etc. Sounds like the root of the problem was at the shop and it would have been downhill from there no matter what. Especially since you said you had plants getting light through a window. All they had to do was look in the window.

tell them god made it arrest him. you just watered it lol. god ur under arrest for the creation of cannibus. anything you say can and will be used againt you. in the court of law . lmao i would like to see them try lol

Intel can be gathered anywhere by intelligent people, but we're talking about cops, pigs, here; they are not so intelligent, just a bunch of high school bullies that never grew up. Make sure you strip your exfil data from photos uploaded here; don't post pix from a site like Photobucket or flickr where you have other photos they can see. The owner of the site, the admin, the global mods and the regular mods all do everything we can to ensure the security of the site and protect everyone; they take that very seriously.

Just to let everyone know, cops do hangout at Grow shops, hydro stores and jott down license plate numbers. Your license plate can be looked up and it's tied to your home address. They don't need to follow you home. The DMV has your address.
Place a piece of black duct tape or cardboard over your license plate before going to the store and then just remove it a few blocks away, making sure your not being followed. Also never use a credit card when purchasing goods.

shroombilly420 said:

Then the cop would pull you over for obstructing your license plate number, which is even more suspicious. Then you would not doubt have them rummaging through your garbage and staking out your home.

OP, sorry to hear that. However, you made a very rookie mistake. The first few pages of Marijuana Horticulture - The IndoorOutdoor Medical Growers Bible by Jorge Cervantes suggest



Hopefully you can bring attention to your story and keep it from happening to someone else!

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Good! Pull me over! If I got pulled over after coming out of a hydro store, you bet I would be on red alert.

Nightmarecreature said:

Good! Pull me over! If I got pulled over after coming out of a hydro store, you bet I would be on red alert.

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My point is, you don't want to be on red alert. You want to maintain a low profile.