I hope you told them you were an alien commuting with the mother ship? :-)

Chicago PD knows me well. I sit on the line of 2 precincts. I get it from both. Legally speaking they need a search warrent. I just let them in. The city inspectors are also interested. They would stop by in summer when my doors are open just to see what "weird" things are in bloom. They seem to like the Nepenthese better than some of my orchids. Occassionally there is a new PD beat cop that noses by.

Its not always the neighbours reporting. The electric co also reports "unique usage" and changes in usage. "Growers" usually run their lights at night. Up this way they use HID's. The PD is trained to look for oddities. Get a new young beat cop who doesn't know you are the local "orchid nut"...

Rather have the PD in than some of the neighbours. You can get robbed. 80% of robberies are by someone who has been inside your home.

You may want to think about giving your precinct an in bloom plant for the holidays or keep them stocked. When 1 goes out of bloom take it home and replace it with another. If you do something more interesting than a phal, word gets around. "Stinkie Baby" is always a good one. They can't miss the fragrance.

Clara

Funnily enough I am still waiting for my local police to call in. One bedroom has been turned into a grow room complete with HID sodium lights. I never cover the window so it shines with an orange hue from 7am to 9pm. Many neighbours have mentioned it to me and wondered what I was doing but so far no police visits.

For about 5 years, I have had lights blazing from a bedroom window high up on a hill. No visits yet, but I keep waiting. I'm blessed with nice neighbors.

On the bright side, the police may ignore future complaints and you'll be free to grow as much marijuana as you like. :-D

Now that is funny corymbosa!

Brooke

LOL!! It's perfect..mary jane, hiding behind the leaves of some large phal

I actually am surprised I have not had a visit since I am a college student and live in a college town.

On the other hand, I did here rumors that the local big grower/seller took notice.

That's why i leave the curtains in the basement grow room open. That way they can just peek thru and not bust in the door if i'm not home.

I also use regular shop lights, not 'grow lights' so that may have something to do w/ my not attracting notice.

LOL. I did not have anyone actually call the police, but a neighbor did come right out and ask me if I was growing marijuana under all the bright lights. I happily showed him my orchid collection which quickly shut him up. End of incident. Guess he had nothing better to do with his time. Sure glad I do!

And people complain about NYers. I know someone that happened to here, but the neighbor called the fire department because of the yellow light refracting off a sheet of mylar out her window. That was bad enough, but at least they were doing it because they CARED about her safety, not because they were being obnoxious vigilante busybodies. I'd have told 'em it was none of their business but if they'd like to go get the warrant, I'd be happy to chat with one of them outside the front door until his/her partner got back (just so they'd no I wasn't busy trying to flush the HID down the toilet?.) God Bless America.

I suspect one or two of my neighbors wondered about me, but at least they had the courtesy to make an excuse to get me to invite them in to see "my plants." That I was happy to do, though I had to repress a snide grin while doing so... I even made one of 'em take a cutting of something she probably tossed in the trash when she got back upstairs. ROFLMAO

funny
I had a similar "incident" a week ago...not plant related though
I was trapping a feral mother cat and her kittens. Got the babies for socializing/adopting out, and kept trying to get the mother. I went in the evening with my husband and set up a trap, on city property, in the bushes. Five minutes later, police with K9 unit showed up - they got a call that "there was a person laying down in the bushes smoking crack and they could see the smoke rising"!

I had to show them my traps and the can of tuna; after 10 mins of questions, they left...but the cat was gone for the night, thanks to all the flash lights and the K9s...

Some super vigilant citizens/neighbors can be annoying..
Olya

Knowing some of the characters in my area rumored to grow marijuana (being a high school vice principal lets you in on a lot of news) folks might be afraid to come and ask you what are growing. Much easier for the police to deal with it then involve yourself. Bill

I can smell your stupid neighbor's meth lab all the way up here in Oklahoma. Please call in and report it. :D
-MB

LOL, Mr. Breeze. There you go again. If I fall off my chair laughing and break my leg, I'll know who to blame. :D

MrB the only reason you can smell the meth lab is because they are now brewing (?) it in the trunk of their cars and they are on I-30, heading for you house.

Brooke

haha the only reason he can smell the meth lab is cause the secret ingredient in the best meth in the world is essence of ang..didn't you know? :P

That is why I am here no nosey neighbors , no neighbors at all .
Funny story, when I lived in Los Angeles an up tight retentive lady down the street asked me to come over and look at a plant in her back yard .
I did ,it was not a plant but a huge tree , guess what it was .
I didn't tell her .:) Gin

When we were constructing our GH outside, we had to set up all 350 or so of my orchids on sawhorse benches covered with fencing in the garage, with 6 large overhead fluorescent fixtures (with grow bulbs) on timers. We had 2 of the building inspectors show up one day, so I showed them the orchid setup so they could assure themselves that I wasn't growing anything illegal. I've also made a point of showing our postal delivery person the orchids, and my DH invited the local sheriff to come by to look at the orchids any time he wanted to.

It's a small mountain community, lots of secluded woods and areas, and as a result we get a huge porportion of people growing MJ farms, both inside and out. I understand the concern and really don't mind as long as they don't get intrusive. The GH door is clear glass and they can always peek in to take a look, too, and I don't run lights in the GH.

If you don't mind another funny story, we used to live in a beach area in socal back in the 70's and 80's. One night there was a police helicopter buzzing the neighborhood, bright chopper lights through our window in the middle of the night. We peeked out the bedroom window and saw a huge plant come sailing across our fence. DH went out to check, and it was a very large MJ ripped out by the roots. Seems our neighbor decided to use our yard to get rid of the evidence! Gee, thanks...

Sharon

For 3 years now I've grown opium poppy and nicotine in my front yard and have my grow lights on into the evening with no curtains so it practically lights up the sidewalk. And still, not one gorgeous hunky NYPD officer has dropped by to ask "Ma'am, would you mind explaining..."

What does a girl have to do to get a date out here????!!!

I grow a few big bushessmall trees of Vitex agnus-castus (Chaste tree) for its gorgeous fragrant purple flowers which bloom and rebloom throught the warm months. The leaves, especially when seen on small plants, look exactly like marijuana, but smell like lavender instead. Cops never gave them a glance.

I do often work at night in the greenhouse with all the lights on, including HPS, and although the Medevac helos fly over the GH several times a day on their way to the nearby hospital, no one has ever been interested about what's growing inside. But when and if they do get interested, best come with a search warrant in hand -- gotta keep them toeing the line.

Well, I'm with dragon-kite on this one. There's something about one of those gorgeous young men saying "You just call us anytime you want to, ma'am" that makes me wish I was 50 years younger.

On a serious note, I'm been really happy to see those guys a couple of times I was in real trouble. My husband takes them a box of doughnuts or a sandwich tray at Christmas.

I'm surprised they even bothered you. In my area there are at least monthly grow house raids. People rent a whole house to grow weed in. They have tremendous light and fertilizer set ups. One of the ways they find them is excessive electric usage. Windows are usually covered with foil as well as most of the interior rooms. I always wonder what happens to that wonderful grow equipment--lights etc. YOu can see the police take it out of the house as well as huge plants.

barbcoleus - can you imagine? "here - we don't need these HPS, reflectors, or ballasts anymore..feel free to help yourselves!"

Steph - I was sorting through the seedbox of my gardening club a few years back and found opium poppy seeds - genuine papaver somniferum! I was shocked...have since lost them, but I would love to grow some - they do have beautiful flowers! Are they legal to grow?

Re NYPD, my friend just ordered a few NY firefighter calendars for christmas gifts this year! (The toronto ones are definitely not as good looking)

Many of the seized grow lights show up on www.propertyroom.com, which is a police auction site.

There used to be a site called www.stealitback.com that had a ton of cheap fixtures and assorted lighting crap.

My home county has 3 recreational lakes and 100's of pricey homes that are lived in only half the year. That means every home is a potential target for thieves. Nosey neighbors are a blessing. It makes it harder for vans to back up to your house and haul away your electronics. I was still single when I bought my home. I had told my neighbor I'd be gone a week chaparoning a 4-H Camp, but I forgot to call her when I got home. My Fiancee came over Friday night and we were cooking out. I was outside when the phone rang and he answered it with my name... "this is the Ms flintlock residence". The response was "I know, But who are You??" When I came back in, I called her and thanked her. That used to be what neighbors were all about.

Hear, hear, ms flintlock. I'm with you on that one.

Calvin, those are the same poppy seeds that we eat so you can pick up some at your grocers and throw them on the ground next spring and wait for the cops to come. People in the office used to fail drug tests just because they had a poppy seed bagel or muffin in the morning ^_^.

Last time I checked (3 years ago) it's illegal to grow opium poppies in the US but not in Canada. It's a shame they don't let us grow them, they're really silky and tall, great for background height. If you can't find any at your supermarket, email me your address and I'll send you some seeds...mine are all salmon colored tho...couldn't get my hands on the red ones.

Firefighter calendars sell like hot cakes here...I met 2 of the firefighters, one from last year's and one from this year's...they are short! They look so big and hunky in the photos but in real life (and with clothes on) they look like regular people you'd see on the street and are only around 5'7.

NY firefighters only 5/7?? They must have changed the requirements to allow women. Back when I lived there, they were always BIG. You'd see a bunch of tall, strong guys shopping in the grocery, and you'd know--firefighters.

They knew how to shop, too. No sub-par ingredients.

No, it was NY State Troopers who were always big, REAL BIG. At one time they had to be a minimum of 6"0". The firefighters were average sized, allowing for all ethnic groups and genders back in my NY years.

Through the years I've had several friends who were into competitive bodybuilding and all of them were probably in the 5'7 - 5'8 height range. They told me that more compact, shorter men have a better appearance to the eye than taller men and that almost all champion bodybuilders are short. I guess it's proportional. Personally, I can live very well without the extreme muscle type, tall or short.

hehe, my landlord was actually a little disappointed that I was only growing orchids!

I forgot about the excessive electrical usage deal! When we had 2 greenhouses and a huge koi pond/waterfall and swimming pool all going in socal, our electric bills were absolutely unbelievable, but no one came by to see what was growing in the GH. Last year we put old-fashioned fat red Christmas lights on a huge blue spruce out front. My DH just loved them, but every time they'd turn on, our house lights dimmed. Even I knew that was bad, but DH really wanted to put them up again this year until he calculated that it cost us $200 for ONE MONTH of just turning them on for 4 hours at night during the holidays. They're now history.

My gramma used to grow opium poppies just because they were pretty. As children, my sibs and I would hunt for the dry ones to shake the seeds out--just like baby rattles. I sure miss those flowers. And thought that the poppy seeds used for baking these days had been neutralized somehow so they wouldn't sprout?

Sharon

According to various seed catalogs I used to get, you should be able to buy actually a selection of Papaver somniferum in Canada. For the time being anyway, you're government isn't quite as insane as ours...

Lol! Considering you need SO MANY seed pods to make any sort of opium, it's funny that it's illegal! My grandpa waay back in the day used to live next to an opium farm - he would see them harvest the opium by going down rows upon rows of green seed heads and nicking them, and then going back and scraping the few drops of white residue that would seep out.

I had *no* idea that poppies in bagels are from papaver somniferum though!

Sharon - one string of christmas lights would go for 200 bucks a month?? Or is that added with the greenhouse costs cause that's ALOT! o_O

Maybe Toronto lets in more people to be firefighters, but I'm assuming they choose the best looking ones for the calendar and unfortunately, they are definitely not that great looking...maybe NY just has more good looking people, or they're selective in their recruitment :P

ItÂs a shame people will let law enforcement come into their homes on business without search warrants. I know and have known (and I hear from my family been related to) some very friendly and honest officers, so I can understand the inclination to consider it "no big deal" to let the profession as a whole do their thing as they see fit. Not a fan of the Gestapo-style drop by though, in person or electronically. ThereÂs this pervasive attitude, especially as of late, that if youÂre not doing anything wrong it doesnÂt matter, and thatÂs just not the case. I suspect there are people, management, that are suspicious of what IÂm growing in our apartment, but they will be sorely disappointed if they ever go about inquiring as to what outside the realms of the law. I will be on the phone with the ACLU and my lawyer friends before theyÂve left. I hope my beautiful and legal tropical plants and orchids lower everyone's blood pressures; IÂll be sure to bring some of them to court to help there too if need be. I have had a number of unannounced maintenance knocks on my door with no apartment emergencies or work orders as of late, so IÂm on Dale Gribble-style edge! ItÂs quite ridiculous at this point that controlling Marijuana (which I have exactly zero personal interest in) is at the forefront of anyoneÂs concerns.

My hobby is fairly well known locally, I think the RCMP are scared to come over and learn more than they ever wanted to know about orchids :)
I also grow P. somniferum poppies of many types here in Canada. They are only illegal if you tried to harvest the opium. I just like the flowers and seedpods.

Shaun

This really disturbs me, esp if I choose to actually grow some lol. Seriously though, why do you let them in, just to get them to go away? Civil rights v low crime is a big issue and I'm more in favor of my own civil rights since I am not a criminal.

I burst into laughter when I read the post, salvialvr. I know it must be annoying, but at my last place, I always thought a police officer would show up inquiring about the extremely bright lights. It never happened though. You would think people would me more worried about drunk drivers and drunk people than people growing plants -- just my opinion. Thanks for sharing!

Great post!
The only time something similar happened to us was many years ago when we hosted an out of town family of friends for dinner. After dinner, the teenagers retired to the kids' room, where they talked and laughed and listened to (loud) music while the adults lingered over coffee. By 11pm they had all gone and we started cleaning up. We were already in our pyjamas, just about to crawl into bed when the police arrived. They informed us that they had received a complaint from the downstairs neighbour of a wild and noisy party. I told them that the only party going on at the moment was a pyjama party for two! Lucky for me the policeman had a sense of humour. We didn't invite him in and he didn't ask to join in the fun lol. I suspect that our neighbour ( who has always been problematic to say the least) had a particular grievance against us that night (we were enjoying ourselves whilst she was not??)
Judy

I don't know about nosey neighbors, but I've experienced vandals. Some 35 years ago, someone or some persons broke into my first greenhouse. It was a fiberglass greenhouse about 9' x 12' and I kept the door locked every night. Well, one morning I came out to inspect my plants. I unlocked the door to find the whole greenhouse completely trashed. Someone had kicked in one of my fiberglass panels and ransacked the house. I'm sure they were looking for marijuana. In frustration, they just trashed the place. I called the police, but they didn't do anything about it. I was extremely upset. Pots were broken. Plants strewn all about. But nothing was stolen. Thankfully, back then I learned to wire a label to each plant. I spent the entire weekend repotting all my plants. Since then, no incidences. I'm sure those idiots who vandalized my greenhouse now knows that my greenhouses only house orchids. I'm sure they were disappointed.