Home buyer walks into new house only to find an enormous £70,000 cannabis farm
You finally buy the home of your dreams – only to find the wrong kind of housewarming plant.
A house buyer found a full-scale cannabis farm when unlocking the door to their new property.
Cambridgeshire Police released photos of the property in the sleepy village of Manea, which was crammed with dozens of illegal plants.
‘The new owners of a property in Manea were greeted with this surprise when they opened it up for the first time!’, they said in a Facebook post.
‘They may have expected to do a bit of gardening, but this wasn’t what they had in mind.’
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In the first image, rows of bright green cannabis plants – visually distinct with their uniquely shaped leaves – can be seen bursting out of black pots under grow lights.
The image also shows a humidifier and tangled wires in what appears to be a makeshift setup inside a basement or back room. The second phot shows the same crop glowing under bright orange lamps, with many of the plants already sprouting early buds.
Between 50 and 70 plants are believed to have been growing in the house, which could have produced up to 25lb of cannabis.
Such a haul would have fetched £30,000 to £70,000 on the UK black market, where a single gram fetches between £8 and £15.
But the grower’s big payday was ruined when the homebuyer walked in.
‘Thankfully, they gave us a call, our officers attended to remove the plants and an investigation is ongoing,’ Cambridgeshire Police said. No arrests have been made.
Facebook commenters were stunned by the discovery, but not everyone seems to think the farm was a bad thing.
‘That’s the best housewarming present ever,’ one commenter wrote.
Another remarked: ‘Plants are a traditional house warming gift.’
Police are urging Brits to keep their eyes peeled for tell-tale signs of illegal cannabis farms popping up in their neighbourhood.
These might include frequent visitors to a property at unsocial hours, blacked out windows or condensation, even when it is not cold outside and bright lights in rooms throughout the night.
Electricity meters being tampered with and high electricity bills can also be indicators as well as a powerful and distinctive aroma, noise from fans and an excessive amount of plant pots, chemicals, fertilisers and compost