Original Blog Entry: Man calls police about hostage cops find pot growing

truesee — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:42:48 GMT

Man calls police about hostage situation, cops find his pot-growing operation

By Emily Kaiser in Crime, Drugs

Wednesday, Jul. 8 2009 @ 12:26PM

Photo by Joe M500

It's another round of America's Dumbest Criminals, say Minneapolis police. A man allegedly connected to a major pot-growing operation in a South Minneapolis home still thought it was safe to call police to the house about a hostage situation and ended up in trouble with the law himself.

Minneapolis police showed up at the home on 57th Street and Bryant Avenue South early Tuesday when a man called to say he had been tied up in a robbery attempt and another man was still bound. He called police asking them to help the other man and find the robbers.

That's not exactly what they found.

Police showed up to find no hostage, no armed robbers, and 35 marijuana plants in the house. The men who claimed they were hostages were arrested for their connection to the pot.

Police also said the home had been rewired to bypass the electrical meter and housed a boa constrictor and a large lizard. Good one, guys.

This is another one of those stories that you can chalk up to an episode of 'America's Dumbest Criminals,' MPD's Jesse Garcia told the Star Tribune.

Related pot story

WSAV-TV/Savannah Morning News

Published: July 7, 2009

A late-night fire consumed part of a Savannah man s home and all of his pot. A call to extinguish the blaze at a home in the 2200 block of Louis Mills Boulevard turned into a drug bust just before 2 a.m. Saturday when firefighters and police discovered nine marijuana plants and a .22-caliber Ruger semi-automatic pistol.

Savannah, GA A late-night fire consumed part of a Savannah man s home and all of his pot.

A call to extinguish the blaze at a home in the 2200 block of Louis Mills Boulevard turned into a drug bust just before 2 a.m. Saturday when firefighters and police discovered nine marijuana plants and a .22-caliber Ruger semi-automatic pistol.

Savannah-Chatham police arrested homeowner Brett Napier, 44, who is being held at the Chatham County jail. Napier was charged with two felonies - possession and manufacturing of marijuana and possession of a firearm in committing a crime.

Several Southside Fire Emergency Service fire engines, three ambulances, a rescue truck and about 20 firefighters responded to the scene, said Assistant Chief Hugh Futrell.

There were no injuries, and fire damage was limited to the back half of the house. The front portion of the home was not burned, he said.

The attic was heavily damaged by the fire, and an area in the back of the roof burned off, Futrell said. The downstairs was good - just damage from falling debris and, of course, water. The front part of the house, none of that burned.

The fire reached the attic through a scuttle hole in a back room, he said.

All nine marijuana plants were found in a rear room. In addition to the live plants, police also found a bag of leafy marijuana, a bag of marijuana stems, a glass vile of marijuana buds, a green glass bong and two heating lamps in the house.

Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics Team and forensics investigators were called to the scene.

The cause of the fire is unknown, and the incident is still under investigation, Futrell said.

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