Really, they didn’t think to close the flue? (Or whatever it is you do to close a chimney. I don’t know. Have never had one.)
By Sam Wood
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERA patrol cop with a sensitive schnoz was credited today with uprooting what authorities say is the biggest marijuana-growing operation in New Jersey’s history.
Police last month raided six homes – several of them $1 million McMansions – and seized more than $10 million worth of cannabis growing inside under artificial lights, authorities announced today.
The bust might not have happened if Officer Thomas Lucasiewicz had been suffering from a head cold. The Monroe Township cop was on patrol Feb. 12 when he smelled burning marijuana in an upscale Middlesex County community.
At first, Lucasiewicz thought somebody might be smoking a joint in a car parked nearby, said Sgt. Steve Jones, a state police spokesman.
“But with his bloodhound senses, he realized it was much stronger than he first thought,” Jones said. “He followed his nose. Then he saw smoke rising from a chimney.”
Overpowered by the scent, Lucasiewicz called his squad. When backup arrived, Lucasiewicz knocked on the door of the single-story ranch house.
They were greeted by a surprised man, “the gardener, essentially, who was burning some of the unusable parts of the plants in the fireplace,” Jones said.
Narc.