how much power can u consume until the power company starts asking questions.

Usually up until you don't pay the bill, they just want their money.

As long as you pay your bills on time and keep the bill about a few hundred dollars within the previous owners bills no problem.

they did 2 seperate stings here tuesday they were about ten miles apart i dont have all the details but i bet it started with power consumption

KXAN.com - News, Weather, Sports - Austin, TX | Narcotics Officers Seize 85 Pounds Of Pot

here is what they got today

Honestly, the bust probably had nothing to do - directly, at any rate - with the power bills these guys were racking up, assuming they were paying the utility bill on time. Power companies are in business to make money, and as long as they get their money when they want it, they're not going to ask questions or risk losing their income. The news article mentioned that neighbors noticed 'suspicious' activity at the homes of both these guys. Likely they aren't the brightest of people. Everyone I've ever known who got busted for growing did so through their own stupidity - loud music and/or other noise all hours of the day, traffic constantly coming and going from the home, telling people that they grow. It was probably the same with these guys.

I'm sure the police subpeona'd the local power company for their power bill records, just to add to their case against the two men to show how long they've been growing, which leads credence to any charges having to do with distribution, but not until after the bust, or at least while they were gathering evidence to go after the growers. It's highly unlikely the power bill led law enforcement to the homes.

__________________
Let he who is not stoned cast the first sin.

Smile and grow peace,

-SS

your assuming again. they nailed 6 more today. i doubt these homes had lots of traffic or people. it is a clear operation they are doing to stop the cultivation process. none of these arrests have distribution charges.........
all are seperate raids they did 6 houses in 7 hours today. being that its unlawful to use detection equiptment to spy it has to start somewhere....


for clarity the city of austin is a municipal owned utility your check is made out to "city of Austin" you tickets fines go to city of austin. your criminal charges and fines are assesed to the county and county courts.

therefore there are only 2 agencys that benifit from this. as the summer months come many of these grow ops are terminated because of heat issues. right now in texas the adverage temp is 74 days and 65 nights. this makes climate control a must for farmers now a days. so if you have high bills this is a red flag. this is the only way i can assume that they have nailed a total of 8 seperate homes.

and fyi 30 and 55 lbs of plants is only 20-35 plants these are small personal and commercial ops happening around here.

if they cant look into your walls with IR or heat detection then word of mouth and power consumption will be the only way.

have you even put into consideration that the people that originally got busted may know all of these other growers and just snitched them out??? really even the police do not know if they are linked in any way, so they could all be doing this together.... and it takes more than just an electric bill to get a warrant so obviously it is more thn just power.... ok??

That can't be the begining of the enquiry though, if you really do cover all bases and make sure that you cant get busted then you wont.

I can't see the electric company saying "Have you noticed that number 732 fish street is using double the electric that it used to, lets call the police".

Hello is that the police is the wherever power dept and we noticed that one house is using double the electricity and we would like you to go check it out.

I'm not doubting that they will use the electricity bills as further evidence but its not something to come and check your house over. The police have no automatic right to enter your house if you dont want them to. As long you never do anything to make a copper come to your house, everything will be just fucking dandy.