Advertisement

Pot stolen while police look other way

rlw/cc/Christine Chew UPI
rlw/cc/Christine Chew UPI | License Photo

Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

MERTHYR TYDFIL, Wales, May 3 (UPI) -- Thieves came through the back door of a nightclub in Wales that had been converted to a marijuana farm while police were guarding the front, authorities said.

Investigators said Monday the 1,000 plants in the building in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, were worth about $500,000, the Daily Mirror reported.

Advertisement

However, about 5 percent of the contents was removed by a people who stuffed plants into trash bags. A neighbor who spotted the group loading plants into a van called the emergency number but the thieves were able to get away.

A source described by the Mirror as a police insider said there are "a few red faces."

"Everyone was chuffed with busting the huge factory and there was a blaze of publicity about it," the source said. "There was such a lot of cannabis inside we had to bring in council experts to dispose of it. While we were waiting for them the thieves broke in through the back."

Investigators said the building had been furnished with grow lights and a watering system. Four Vietnamese immigrants were arrested on the premises.

Latest Headlines