Your Electricity Bill Is A Public Record?, Big brother is still watching

It was too many appliances, not pot, that police found at Carlsbad home

Commentary: Probably cause for the issuance of a search warrant is defined as "reasonable grounds to believe that a crime has been committed." That being the case, it's apparently not a crime to use electricity. Here's the article:

CARLSBAD, Calif. - When police noticed Dina Dagy's family was spending $250 to $300 a month on electricity, they suspected a marijuana farm was flourishing under high-intensity lights inside their suburban home.

What they found when they showed up with a drug-sniffing dog and a search warrant was a wife and mother who does several loads of laundry a day, keeps a dishwashing machine going, has three electricity-guzzling computers and three kids who can't remember to turn the lights out when they leave a room.

"It's hard to believe a high utility bill would be enough to issue a state warrant," said Dagy, who is demanding the Police Department issue a written apology.

Authorities say they have already apologized verbally several times and were only following proper procedures. Tracking down marijuana growers by reviewing electricity bills, they say, is a common practice.

"I understand they feel something isn't appropriate here, but it is very much consistent with how search warrants are prepared," said police Lt. Bill Rowland.

When authorities noticed how high the bill for the Dagy home was, they sent a police dog to the neighborhood, and it reacted as though it had smelled drugs.

They also noticed the family had put its trash out that morning, something police say drug growers often do to hide the evidence. In the Dagys' case, however, it was trash day.

When officers returned on March 19 with a search warrant, Dagy was volunteering at her son's second-grade class. She was heading back to her car when police arrived at the school, and she returned home and let them into the house.

They found nothing illegal, and she says she feels fortunate she wasn't in her son's classroom when they arrived.

"I would have been so embarrassed," she said, "and my son would have died: `They're taking your mommy away!'"

Another compelling reason to go off-grid. Of course, doing that labels you as a possible subversive, because why would anyone want to give up municipal power, unless they have a nefarious reason? You know, like being in a militia, or wanting to stand on your own two feet, or just not trusting our benign and loving government that just wants to you.

Good post, sir. We will miss you when Homeland Security takes you away for this 'subverisve, terrorist" behavior.

The whole War On Drugs is a waste of money. Just like Prohibition.

It's scary how we keep finding subjects we agree on. Besides, where is the fun when we agree?

Local paper did a story last year how wal-mart will report those people that buy large quantities of items that are commonly used in the production of methamphetamines which is a large problem for such a rural area there are several raids a month on production facilities, an example of a suspicious purchase they gave was an unusually large ammount of coffee filters. It is easy to identify them if they pay with credit card or atm card but Wal-mart lets the police use the surveilance cameras to identify the "perp". The police could then issue a warrant and raid the home. It kind of made me want to go out and buy $50 bucks worth of coffee filters and bleach a package of rat poison and some gold fish to see what would happen.

Man, unless you relish seeing your residence and environs turned upside down and shaken until everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, falls out, don't even contemplate it. I have personally witnessed the zeal with which some LEO's search the residence of a suspected meth cooker. And don't even think for a minute that they'll put everything back after they get through. And they will find something, since the majority of us already have some of the items needed to cook lying about the house. Maybe not enough to prosecute, but enough to justify the search warrant. I guess I am lucky, in that my agency doesn't approach it that way. We do it the old fashioned way, with snitches and stake-outs.

I do have a question, though. Gold fish? Have you discovered a new recipe for meth that replaces anhydrous ammonia or blue-tip matches with fish? Could be a real breakthrough!!

You smoke them in a big pipe. Try it.

Goldfish=confusion
I mean it thew you for a loop didn't it.

When I was in the Army I had a room-mate, We just did a change of command ceremony that pleasant (110 deg. with heat index, and 100% percent humidity ah lovely Ft. Bragg) summer morning but that is a diferent complaint, afterwards they gave us the rest of the day off, I went back to the barracks and took a nap. My room-mate had a few people I didn't know over then woke me up to say he was going out. About an hour or to later my cousin an MP stationed at the base came over and invited me out to lunch at the BK I said ok let me get dressed he asked to use the bathroom. I said ok. He came out a few minutes later and said did you know you had a roach on the sink? I said no, did you kill it? He said not that kind. and I said oh. He than told me he had to tell my 1st SGT I said it wasn't mine and we went to lunch. Afterwards I called up my PLT SGT and told him what happened he said don't worry about it my room-mate had actually just got busted on a urinalysis and they were going to get him Mon.. So he was busted twice. A few weeks later while he was in the process of getting chaptered out CID was doing an undercover investigation on him. I signed out on 30 days leave at midnight and drove to TX. 10 hours later they raided our room. I was supposed to return from leave at midnight and at 4 am go to the field I was laready packed etc... I got back at 2300 and signed in got to my room for some shut eye and my jaw dropped 30 days everything I had was trashed, I had a collection of books thrown, my gear was thrown out. A window was broken and It had rained, a lot, years of papers ruined. My commander said I had no recourse, I was 19, I sucked it up and drove on. But it really changed my attitude. My room-mate got 18 months, at a Marine jail in the same cell as the guy that narced him out.

At least they put him in the same cell as his "friend".

One thing about that is he didn't have to go through that often awkard and shy phase to make new prison 'buddies'. You know the phase I mean, where they have to decide who will give and who will recieve, ummmm, you know.

Leo

There was a song on the radio about that subject recently titled "Prison **TOS VIOLATION**". It was rather amazing.

Im not a drug user pusher etc.. but I just don't like a narc

I do think it is obvious who already had their turn at recieving.