High energy bills may make you a target for POLICE surveillance
 

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...7m26wrong.html

CARLSBAD ? Dina Dagy admits her family could do better when it comes to conserving energy.

Her children don't always shut off the computers when they're done. The family of five leaves its outside lights on so that their runaway boxer might find its way home. And it's not uncommon for them to do two or three loads of laundry each day.

But it never occurred to Beryl and Dina Dagy that their high electric bills ? which run from $200 to $300 a month ? would cause them problems with the law.

The Dagys' home was one of 25 raided Friday as part of a six-month investigation into a countywide ring that was growing marijuana inside rental homes. Homes were targeted largely based on unusually high utility bills, which often result from the 24-hour use of grow lights, according to court records.

No pot was found in the Dagys' home.

Dina Dagy was volunteering in her son's second-grade classroom when police arrived at her Ivy Street home.

"Their investigation was just so flawed," Dina Dagy said yesterday as she sat in the two-story home the family bought a year ago.

The Dagys want a written apology from the Carlsbad Police Department, which conducted the search, and have sent letters to city, county and state officials in hopes that other families won't go through the same ordeal.

Carlsbad police Lt. Bill Rowland said he planned to speak with the Dagys, and his investigators apologized to the Dagys the day of the search, but he did not commit to a written apology.

That's because the Dagys' high electricity bill was not the sole reason for the search, Rowland said. He noted a drug-sniffing dog showed interest in the home when it was taken there before Friday's search. A search warrant affidavit was reviewed by the District Attorney's Office and a judge signed the warrant.

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.

Before the raid, investigators reached Beryl Dagy on his cellular phone to ask if someone would let them inside to avoid knocking down the door, Rowland said. He then called his wife at the school.

Dina Dagy arrived to find police surrounding the home. Neighbors watched as she stood outside and detectives combed through the house.

They found plenty of toys, but no pot.

So how did police zero in on the home?

In his sworn affidavit, Carlsbad Detective Mark Reyes states an unidentified, confidential source told a county Narcotics Task Force agent that someone might be growing pot in the house.

Investigators subpoenaed utility records, which showed the Dagys used 1,584 kilowatts of electricity in February, and 1,616 kilowatts in January, the affidavit states. That's three to four times the amount used in neighboring homes during the same period, according to the affidavit.

Also, surveillance of the home showed that the Dagys placed their trash cans on the curb outside their home the morning of the Thursday pickups.

Why is that a big deal? Some narcotics offenders wait until the last possible moment to put their trash on the curb because they know that investigators retrieve evidence from trash, the affidavit says.

Dina Dagy admits that their San Diego Gas & Electric bills are high, but "I didn't realize it would target us as marijuana growers."

Rowland said detectives maintain there was probable cause to search the home.

Dina Dagy isn't convinced.

"They were wrong and I want them to say they were wrong," she said

Isn't that sorta common sense?

I have wondered about something like this happening to me do to being young with money, not leaving the house often, tons of people coming and going....stuff like that

Of course. That's common. Even if you can hide it from the helicopters that pick up on the heat, they'll still be able to see how much electricity/power you're using every month.

That's why you have to steal it off the main line and bypass the meter. :Graucho

Since when do the pigs have the right to see your utility bills?

good ole' us of a for ya:thumbsup

:thumbsup

It continues to deteriorate. :2 cents:

"Technically" I doubt they can...but in reality, they can do whatever the fuck they want...scary shit!

I don't know if that is bad or good....

Nice attempt at a save using the dog story. I imagine that you could take a dope dog on any of the streets around here and get false hits as well, given the numbers of teens thinking they are cool and walking down the streets at night smoking a joint.

hehe..i know some huge homes that use more than my small grow. Sucks to be them

Just a heads up but your utility bills are public. Call any utility and say you are looking to buy "any address" and they will give you the last years usage or pretty much whatever you ask for.

Old news. This is done in Canada for a long time.
I know a guy that works at electric comapany and walk around writing down the information off meters. Police offers them 25 bucks for a lead on a house with high electricity bill that leads to a grow house.

Since a long time in California.:Graucho

The utilities companies turn you in, I 1st read about it years ago.

well if that's the case i'll be expecting a raid any minute now

this is common knowledge in the marihuana growing community, many of the bigger sites and boards have threads and articles on how to keep your electricity use low and constant as to not tip off the power companies

If you don't want somehahahaha to go through your trash, BURN what you need to burn. I know for a fact that my trash has been gone through by a human being if I put it out at night...I don't know if it's a bum or a cop but I know that they won't find shit in there but food garbage and general trash..I don't even put a receipt from KFC in the trash.

Matter of fact, I'm about to take this grocery bag full of shit outside right now and burn it.

On the Utility usage alone that was a bullshit raid. If they went on that alone many of us would be getting raided. My bills are always way up because of computers left running 24-7, my fish tank hobby (several tanks running constantly).. etc.

They are backing it up with other info they supposedly had. Whether its true or not we will never know but it doesnt matter anyway. They will do whatever they want to make it look legit and there is not a thing we can do about it.

I'm surprised no idiot has blamed Bush yet.

abnormally high electric bills get reported to the police automatically in many states. there is a difference between leaving your computer on all night and having a grow operation in your basement that causes your house to use 50 times the electricity of other homes in your neighborhood.

nice thread.

welcome to 30 years ago.

use a gas powered generator to run those lights..... :2 cents:

It is called probable cause. they get a little info that may point to the fact they someone is doing something illegal, and then a judge issues a search warrant.


Like this CI that gave them the info.. Usually a CI us someone that has been arrested several times, but continues to stay in the world of crime. They are often paid by the cops to give info, and not arrested for some of the smaller crimes that they commit.

The other thing is Creative Writing 101. In the police academy, they take report writing. they call it creative.

You and I call it lieing.



If they dont have the evidence that they need, they make it up.

exactly

The police use high utility bills to look for marijuana growers in Canada as well.

the cops have been cracking down large...anything is probable cause these days...my question is, how the hell do the cops stay honest?? all that dope and $$ they confiscate???

and yes there are some honest cops...my sisters are both cops.

I'm surprised no idiot has blamed Bush yet.

Just tap in directly to the power line and fuck the meter?

Why would they blame Bush? Are you, like, a moron or something?

been going on for years

I have 28 computers in my house running all the time, plus its a large home with 2 central A/C units and a swimming pool with the pump running all the time. Electric bills over $500 are common during the hotter months.

Wonder how long before I get raided for being a "pot grower"

They use helicopters to with FLIR to pickup houses with lots of heat coming out of them.

Bills are not high enough.

the smart growers have gas generators... at least the paranoid ones... my friends basement is a forrest and he has all of his lighting powered by a honda gas generator

28 computers in one room generates alot of heat

The "war on drugs" is a waste of time and money.

there are ways around this... theres a product called aztec 2000 or aztec something thats a paint that diffuses heat very efficiently and makes it harder to be picked up by the choppers

I'm not the one running off to the day job.:1orglaugh