Police Faked With False Grow House

via Sleepless in Midland

In Odessa, Texas, a group calling itself "Kopbusters" builds a grow house - complete in every detail needed to grow marijuana. Then they put fir saplings in it instead and turn it on, waiting for police to respond. They did.

Odessa Texas, The police that Barry once worked with kicked down the door to a fake grow house where their attorney was handcuffed, later to be released.

. . .

They busted the cops by making a fake grow room that pumped out a lot of heat and waited.

The cops, instead of doing what they should have done, went straight for a search warrant and kicked the door in.

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Why'd they do this? Because, somehow, making the police look foolish is going to get another case, wherein a woman was found guilty of dealing pot, re-opened. I'm not sure how that's supposed to happen, but that's their given reason.

I am curious as to what the police "should have done" rather than show probable cause and get a search warrant. A knock-and-talk? Nobody was in the house. For all we know they tried. I doubt it, because they wouldn't have wanted to warn an illegal grow operation, but they may have.

"Kopbusters" clearly set up a probable cause situation. Heck, if you listen to the main guy being interviewed on TV he even says they used "encrypted emails" and "Wal*Mart blowup cellphones" while setting this up. They did everything criminals would do except they substituted plants at the end of it all. Furthermore, Geo, over at Sleepless, says there was also an anonymous tip. Anonymous tip + corroborating high energy use + corroborating empty house > probable cause.

Sleepless in Midland has a link to a YouTube video of the news report of this incident. However, here's a video of the actual search:

It ain't exactly the KGB breaking down the door at 3 am to drag someone off to the gulag. It's 5 pm and three police enter. They don't seem to have broken in the front door; in fact, it looks like a key is swinging from the door when they enter. Video doesn't show whether they knocked or not. They do a sweep of the house. They find the shirt and poster and then all the cameras. Pictures are taken of the shirt and poster (evidence for whatever Texas' statute they will eventually prosecute these people under). In the end the police are chuckling about everything.

I don't see this as damning. Embarrasing? Maybe. At least we know that's the spin that's being aimed for. Still, I don't see police doing a search of a house that walks like a duck and quacks like a duck causing any change because someone put a lot of effort into dressing a goose up like a duck.