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> I'm not sure what more you'd reasonably expect to find. Literally any sort of activity that uses electrical ovens. I can think of dozens of processes for th

> I'm not sure what more you'd reasonably expect to find. Literally any sort of activity that uses electrical ovens. I can think of dozens of processes for the manufacture of plastic, ceramic and metal items where you're gonna want to bake stuff. Edit: Apparently it wasn't obvious I was disagree about the assertion that "Based on heat and people coming and going" is normal justification for raiding a pot grow op and not this specific case where a warehouse that is supposedly disconnected is using tons of power. Also, it seems like a whole lot of people here don't understand that it is very common for facilities to be occupied by a tenant that's not the owner and who doesn't have any signage out front. If you're going in with a preconceived notion that you're looking for a grow op it's really easy to misread things done out of economic convenience as though they were intentional obfuscation.

paulcole 5y ago
Yep. My nan runs a secret bakery. Does she deserve the cops breathing down her neck?
- rjmunro 5y ago
  If her ovens are rigged to bypass the electricity meters, then yes, she does. If she had a large bitcoin mining operation going on, and used the profit to pay an electricity bill that was in the right ball park, then the cops would leave her alone.
mytailorisrich 5y ago
They don't raid a place based on high electricity consumption or heat alone. They do when this is not expected and suspicious based on other factors as well. For instance a domestic property or, in this case, a warehouse that officially uses no electricity. If you rent a warehouse to run your official glass baubles manufacturing business then no-one is going to bat an eyelid about heat or electricity use.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  >They don't raid a place based on high electricity consumption or heat alone. Sure. But it puts you on the kind of list you don't want to be on and from there there's a good chance they screw you for something stupid because they don't like to come up empty handed after spending resources surveilling you and not finding what they were looking for.
  - Ensorceled 5y ago
    Now you are just going off into weird conspiracy theories. Lots of raids come up empty handed or turn out to have a valid explanation. The police don't have a list of people they want to punish because it turns out they weren't criminals.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      >Now you are just going off into weird conspiracy theories I'm not alleging a conspiracy theory. Those are words you are using to construct an ad-hominum by implying my assertion in in bad company. I'm firmly of the belief that the cops are rational humans responding to incentives. > Lots of raids come up empty handed or turn out to have a valid explanation A "raid coming up empty handed" is exactly the failure mode I'm complaining about. The police should be realizing there's no grow-op long before any sort of "raid". >The police don't have a list of people they want to punish because it turns out they weren't criminals. I didn't say they did. I said they will routinely prosecute minor stuff they weren't looking for that they normally wouldn't pursue rather than come up empty handed.
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  Especially with your big sign out front: "Gloria's Glass Globes" and, also, you'd probably be paying for all that electricity with a check from Gloria's Glass Globes Ltd.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    Businesses that are not consumer facing are often far less diligent about signage and advertising than people think. You'd think one of the largest (legal) indoor grow-ops in my state is a shipping products manufacturer if you went by the sign on the building. The shipping products manufacturer outgrew the building and is leasing it to the pot business. There's a business near me that manufactures medical plastics. Before them the facility was occupied by a company making pasta. Neither has a sign out front. The only difference is the company name on the white box trucks changed.
simias 5y ago
These activities would certainly be legally incorporated and easy to cross reference. I also suspect that these ovens don't run 24/7. If they use their drones on a Sunday outside of work hours they can probably weed out (ha) many false positives.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  > These activities would certainly be legally incorporated and easy to cross reference. Facilities are leased and sometimes sub-leased all the time. Just because Joe's T-shirt Printing owns three warehouses doesn't mean they haven't rented one out to a yoga studio and another out to a machine shop. Just because P&Q Precision Tool exists as a business in state records doesn't mean you have any idea that they're operating out of the Joe's T-Shirt Printing Warehouse that was vacant for the last 3yr.
tomatotomato37 5y ago
An unregistered smelter using large amounts of stolen electricity is still commiting a crime, just not an interesting one
avianlyric 5y ago
I imagine the complete lack of anything actually being shipped into or out of the unit during normal hours was probably a big give away. Most people when using an industrial unit to bake things, then sell the things they bake. Rather than just piling them up in a corner until the entire unit is full.

paulcole 5y ago

Yep. My nan runs a secret bakery. Does she deserve the cops breathing down her neck?

rjmunro 5y ago
If her ovens are rigged to bypass the electricity meters, then yes, she does. If she had a large bitcoin mining operation going on, and used the profit to pay an electricity bill that was in the right ball park, then the cops would leave her alone.

mytailorisrich 5y ago

They don't raid a place based on high electricity consumption or heat alone. They do when this is not expected and suspicious based on other factors as well. For instance a domestic property or, in this case, a warehouse that officially uses no electricity. If you rent a warehouse to run your official glass baubles manufacturing business then no-one is going to bat an eyelid about heat or electricity use.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>They don't raid a place based on high electricity consumption or heat alone. Sure. But it puts you on the kind of list you don't want to be on and from there there's a good chance they screw you for something stupid because they don't like to come up empty handed after spending resources surveilling you and not finding what they were looking for.
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  Now you are just going off into weird conspiracy theories. Lots of raids come up empty handed or turn out to have a valid explanation. The police don't have a list of people they want to punish because it turns out they weren't criminals.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    >Now you are just going off into weird conspiracy theories I'm not alleging a conspiracy theory. Those are words you are using to construct an ad-hominum by implying my assertion in in bad company. I'm firmly of the belief that the cops are rational humans responding to incentives. > Lots of raids come up empty handed or turn out to have a valid explanation A "raid coming up empty handed" is exactly the failure mode I'm complaining about. The police should be realizing there's no grow-op long before any sort of "raid". >The police don't have a list of people they want to punish because it turns out they weren't criminals. I didn't say they did. I said they will routinely prosecute minor stuff they weren't looking for that they normally wouldn't pursue rather than come up empty handed.
Ensorceled 5y ago
Especially with your big sign out front: "Gloria's Glass Globes" and, also, you'd probably be paying for all that electricity with a check from Gloria's Glass Globes Ltd.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Businesses that are not consumer facing are often far less diligent about signage and advertising than people think. You'd think one of the largest (legal) indoor grow-ops in my state is a shipping products manufacturer if you went by the sign on the building. The shipping products manufacturer outgrew the building and is leasing it to the pot business. There's a business near me that manufactures medical plastics. Before them the facility was occupied by a company making pasta. Neither has a sign out front. The only difference is the company name on the white box trucks changed.

simias 5y ago

These activities would certainly be legally incorporated and easy to cross reference. I also suspect that these ovens don't run 24/7. If they use their drones on a Sunday outside of work hours they can probably weed out (ha) many false positives.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
> These activities would certainly be legally incorporated and easy to cross reference. Facilities are leased and sometimes sub-leased all the time. Just because Joe's T-shirt Printing owns three warehouses doesn't mean they haven't rented one out to a yoga studio and another out to a machine shop. Just because P&Q Precision Tool exists as a business in state records doesn't mean you have any idea that they're operating out of the Joe's T-Shirt Printing Warehouse that was vacant for the last 3yr.

tomatotomato37 5y ago

An unregistered smelter using large amounts of stolen electricity is still commiting a crime, just not an interesting one

avianlyric 5y ago

I imagine the complete lack of anything actually being shipped into or out of the unit during normal hours was probably a big give away. Most people when using an industrial unit to bake things, then sell the things they bake. Rather than just piling them up in a corner until the entire unit is full.