HAUL TALK 8180

Up in Smoke

When cultivating and trafficking marijuana, it behooves the grower to pay attention to the little things so as to avoid detection by the authorities — little things like properly disposing of trash. This advice could have benefited Philip Thompson, 35, and Lauri Minta, 28, of Oxford, Maine, who illegally dumped several bags of garbage in front of the gates of their local waste transfer station after finding them locked (the facility is closed on Thursdays).

Searching the contents of the bags, police were able to trace the trash back to the couple's residence. But a misdemeanor littering charge quickly snowballed into felony territory once officers visited the home and smelled and saw evidence of marijuana. After obtaining a search warrant, the officers found 55 budding marijuana plants growing under high-intensity lights, 189 cloned seedlings and more than a pound of dried marijuana ready for distribution. All told, police say the operation had an estimated street value of $122,000.

Guess they should have sprung for curbside pickup.

Source: Sun Journal

Indecent Disposal

Sometimes video games, television, dating and intramural sports simply aren't enough to occupy today's teenagers. That's when they wind up half-naked in a trash can hiding from police.

Such was the case with a 15-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz. male, who exposed his genitals while peeping in the window of a house around 6:45 p.m., no doubt ruining dinner. When the authorities arrived, the teen fled, successfully avoiding capture by taking refuge in a garbage can two blocks away. His plan went awry when the can's owner attempted to deposit her trash and discovered the discarded deviant with a scream. The police, who were still in the area, arrested the teen on misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure, trespassing, failure to obey police and general tastelessness.

Source: The Arizona Republic