Residents angry about damages after search that didn't yield a meth lab
Jessica Garrison was driving on Interstate 40 Wednesday morning heading to Greensboro to pick up her fiancé when she was pulled over by a Burlington police officer in an unmarked car.
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After searching for a couple of hours and securing the area, Burlington police eventually let Garrison back into her house. By that time, she had already seen the nine-page search warrant detailing law enforcement's suspicions that there was a meth lab operation at the house.
It was then that she saw the gaping hole in her front door that officers made to get into her home and clothing from her closets and dresser drawers pulled out of place.
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"The informant stated that he had observed a white male and a white female carrying boxes of funnels, large bags, hoses, lab-type scales and glassware from a vehicle into a trailer parked behind 918 E. Davis St.," the warrant states. "The informant stated that he had smelled strong odors coming from the residence and the trailer behind it over the last month, which the informant believed to be methamphetamine."
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The informant told police there was heavy traffic coming and going from the residence late at night and during all hours of the day. He also observed what he thought was hand-to-hand drug transactions, according to the warrant.
Once police received the tip, officers started doing surveillance on the house to determine whether the information was credible. Meth labs are dangerous because of the chemicals used to make the synthetic drug. They are extremely flammable and the fumes also pose a great risk.
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Garrison said she also smelled an odor in her neighborhood but that it wasn't coming from her house. Her fiancé and his friend did carry the friend's belongings in boxes to a trailer parked in the back yard behind a locked privacy fence. The funnel was used to change oil. The fence was locked to prevent theft.
She said she frequently leaves the house at odd hours because her fiancé is a truck driver, and she takes him to work. She's lived in the house since Jan. 1 and named the few people that have visited in the past month.
If police suspected there was a meth lab at her house, Garrison doesn't know why they didn't just come to her door and ask to come in. She said she would have let them in. They didn't have to damage her door and fence.
WHILE BURLINGTON has never had a confirmed meth lab, police say they couldn't take any chances. They waited for Garrison to leave the house with her daughter to reduce the impact on the child.
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/residents_22408___article.html/angry_search.htmlSo it just takes a tip and some smells? What the hell kind of surveillance were they running? Get a search warrant based on such evidence (thank god I was not seen carrying a chemistry set into the house for my daughter for her home schooling...)?
Not sure which is more dangerous, meth or the police departments/government.
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