Reefer arested for vinegar!

[Tommy]

As subject says, Today as i was getting r eady for work and my wife sleeping.I heard loud pounding on my front door,as i reached my stairs hollering hold on, my front door came apart as it was kicked in by local cops.I could not believe this was happening as i was pushed down the stairs and told i was under arrest.I was then told by a new narc detective that the sub contractor that had installed the new hot water heater had told the cops that he thought i had a meth lab in my bathroom.He claimed to have gotten light headed and smelled meth!What he smelled was vinegar i was useing to clean coralline off powerheads.One of the most disturbing to me was, no i'm sorry,opps we made a horrible mistake,nothing!Think about it fellow reefers how easy this could happen to you,if not you your kids are even your parents.Hope this never happens to any of you.
Tommy...Aka innocent reefer

[demonsp]

Sue them.If you were arrested and your rights violated due to very bad intel then remind them to think like reefers.Measure twice and bust your door down once. Typical .

[mauls]

Thats insane!!! I hope there paying for the kicked in door?

[joesynodontis]

any damages?

[Tommy]

Yeah the PD had a contractor out to fix the door frame,but do not feel its enough.Think about it next time you have any serviseman out to fix anything on your house,it could very well be you next.The cops went soley on a sub contractors word,nothing else.If you live in the twin cities/M/SP area be fore warned that center point energy are their sub contractors can get you and family hand cuffed and terrified from geting your door broke down. If it can happen to me and my family it could happen to you and yours!!!
Tommy

[Harley-J]

wow..similar but by far not as drastic..I was selling my house and the realtor said he would like to come over and finish some of the paper work..I advised him that I was busy working on something, but he insisted on coming over..In my closet I have 2 garbage cans one w/air pumps & a powerhead and 4 x 2 liter bottles of phyto bubbling away, lights and all...
My desk is in this room..so we both walked back and he was probably at retirement age...I just got done mixing Kalk so I had a small cotton face mask pulled down around my neck...as soon as he walked in and saw everything from my phyto and my 2 30 gallon brutes bubbling away...He turned bright red, his eyes bulged out of his bald head and he threw all the paper work on the desk and ran out of my house!! I couldn't believe what just happen till my wife pointed everything out to me...Needless to say I got a VM from him stating that he was booked solid and couldn't take on anymore sales!!! true story....

[downhillbiker]

I think about this a lot. I have Metal Halide Lights that glow from my apartment, my electricity jacked up $30 a month when i first got them, and have been high since. I have ro/di filter, kalk mix, top off jug, stir spoons, salt mix, water jugs, ect, that sit in various places in my house.

yup it could happen to anyone that doesnt notice the 4 fish tanks in my house. sorry bout your luck, at least you didnt get taken down town to see bubba.

[demonsp]

As a teen i did a few months in jail for stealing a bike i did not steal .Kinda hard to scale a 10ft fence with a cast on my ankle.Go figure. Little faith in the system from my shoes.

[Reefbox]

U should talk w an attorney and see if there are any other damages that the PD owes u, then pursue the case. It could be worthwhile.

Did they have a search warrant?

U might want to post on Angieslist or similar site about what the contractor did to you so others know what to expect when they hire this contractor.

[Electrobes]

Sueing the city never works out well for the plaintiff. It's expensive, time consuming, and you're going against cops... I would honestly have one hell of a talk with the contractors bosses and threaten to take the story public.. hurting business in this economy is not what they need. I would definitely be getting free work done to the house by another contractor of course.

[Electrobes]

I forgot to mention.. I would send in a formal complaint against the new detective... it may not sound much but his record gets reviewed when it comes time for promotion.. and idiotcies like this will put him under more thorough employees of the city. He was looking for a good plus to his record.. but now he's hoping you'll forget about it.. last thing he wants is for you to get his butt written up.

[saveafish]

I would be talking to every news station and radio station. I would hit them with the most powerful tool. ((The media)) after the 5pm 6pm 9pm 12pm edition The I am sorry would be made in public

[Playa-1]

Good thing they didn't find your stash

Thats a sad story. We have afforded law enforcement too much power if they can go searching peoples houses on a whim. I heard on the news that now they are going to put up camera speed traps, like the red light ticket fairy we will now have a speed fairy too. Maybe we need to downsize the law enforcement program in our free Country.

So it sounds like if I wanted to give somebody a hard time all I would need to do is call the law and say I suspect them of running a Meth lab in their bathroom and the law will show up and Harrass them for me Muhahahahhaha !!

[hardaur]

I'm passing along the text of your story to a friend of mine that knows about policing the police (he's not a lawyer, but his family is a very well regarded law family). If there's something you should and could practically do, I suspect he'll know.

You could say that as reef keeping is our hobby, this is his.

I'll let him respond if he wants, or I'll pass along anything I get from him.

H

[Froggy]

Just rememeber, assuming the proper chanels were followed, the Police are acting on a warrant reviewed, signed, and approved by both a prosecuting attorney and Judge.

If the Police request a search warrant on a house, it is done through tips as well as a follow up investigation. Even your trash will be picked to find evidence needed to secure the warrant. ( Anything else illegal that ended up in your trash ?)

When you say you were arrested, were you taken to the station for booking ? If you were then the Police found something illegal in their search. If you were just handcuffed and detained in the house, while they searched, you were not arrested.

Sorry this happened to you, if it is all as you report it to be. Meth labs are taken VERY seriously for good reason. If you are not aware of the hazards related to them do a bit of research.

[saveafish]

The police has a lot of amisity on many things. But, The sub contrastor can be held in crimal law for false reporting on public record. With the added civil punitive and defamation of partons.
Many years ago This LFS I went to in Oklahoma The owner got the Hamilton Tech MH and he had the police show up asking where all the stash was?? But that was in like 1998

[RumLad]

Originally posted by saveafish
The police has a lot of amisity on many things. But, The sub contrastor can be held in crimal law for false reporting on public record. With the added civil punitive and defamation of partons.

What?

[The_Browns]

I would sue them and the sub contractor for false information

[LobsterOfJustice]

Don't we have something about this in our constitution (Something along the lines of unlawful search and seizure)?

I would call all the local news stations, and a lawyer. And for the record, I agree with demonsp... little faith in the system. Two years ago my friends and I got pulled over for speeding, ended up searching the car "because of knifings in the area", two of my friends were arrested for possession of marijuana, even though there was no marijuana? The cop saw my friend throw a cigarette out the window, said he had officers go and retrieve it and "he knew what it was". Obviously not. Of course, a year and a half later, when some a-hole takes my paypal money ($150) for a new pump and never sends it, police don't do crap. I called my precinct and his, I had the address of his mother's business (who wouldn't tell me where he was). All they needed to do was go knock on a few doors, but they just told me to file some BS online form.

I. Hate. Cops.

[Froggy]

Why is everyone assuming the Police are wrong in this situation? For the Police to obtain a search warrant to "raid" a house, they need to produce evidence of illegal activity in the house to a prosecutor. No prosecutor would approve a search warrant on a house based on just tip or whim.

The contractor that "smelled" something surely thought he was doing the right thing. Otherwise, why else would he report this to the Police from a house of someone he does not know and is making a living on by doing work there? The contractor would have no reson to maliciously report false info to the Police about someone he has no grudge against. It makes no sense. My guess is the contractor was acting in good faith and gave a tip to the Police. He cannot be held civily liable for that......come on people.

The Police CANNOT obtain a search warrant to search a house solely bassed on a tip. More is needed.

[Froggy]

Originally posted by LobsterOfJustice
Don't we have something about this in our constitution (Something along the lines of unlawful search and seizure)?

I would call all the local news stations, and a lawyer. And for the record, I agree with demonsp... little faith in the system. Two years ago my friends and I got pulled over for speeding, ended up searching the car "because of knifings in the area", two of my friends were arrested for possession of marijuana, even though there was no marijuana? The cop saw my friend throw a cigarette out the window, said he had officers go and retrieve it and "he knew what it was". Obviously not. Of course, a year and a half later, when some a-hole takes my paypal money ($150) for a new pump and never sends it, police don't do crap. I called my precinct and his, I had the address of his mother's business (who wouldn't tell me where he was). All they needed to do was go knock on a few doors, but they just told me to file some BS online form.

I. Hate. Cops.

I feel sorry for you. Your distorted view of the Police is unfortunate.

[Playa-1]

The war on drugs is a joke. What a waste of the tax payers money

This stuff will just keep getting worse as long as we keep looking the other way and As long as we keep allowing the Politicians to be unaccountable for their actions. Definitely follow up on it and see if you can get somebody held accountable for the screw up. Talk to an attorney and see if you have recourse. That would be great if you could hand their asses to them for screwing up like that. In my opinion having them defend their retarded actions in court is a better use of our tax dollars then paying a bunch of yahoos to run around kicking in tax payers doors.

Unfortunately I doubt the media would be interested in running the story because it doesn't involve Britney or Paris. Somehow that's what we've allowed our news to become.

[olkeller]

i am sorry that for your problems however i am grateful for the work police do and they cant be perfect all the time. they are a guy just do his job t support his family and a pretty dangerous and important job at that. if i was in your neighborhood i would be grateful that they took that report serious. i dont want a meth lab around my house.

The contractor probally thought long and hard about it i would have he wasn't a reefer he wouldn't of known he could of just thought well if it wasn't at least the cops will sort it out.

i am disapointed with all the sue remarks its that attitude that has caused more problems in the world than probally any other why dont we quit looking for get rich quick schemes and start using the courts for what they were designed for.

i really do understand your feelings of embarrassment and can imagine the fear but how grateful would you be if it would of happened to your neighbor who did have a meth lab.

[LobsterOfJustice]

Originally posted by Froggy
Why is everyone assuming the Police are wrong in this situation?

Uh... because they kicked his door in for having a meth lab... and he didnt have a meth lab...

[saveafish]

I feel sorry for you. Your distorted view of the Police is unfortunate.

It is where the lines get crossed. Kicking a door down crossed the line when he said I am comming and they didnt wait. Meth labs are very dangerous but also what if he had a 3yrs kid standing in front of the door.