LONDON, ONT. —
Backyard surveillance video in east London shows a thief hopping a fence, cutting marijuana plants, and within 48 seconds he was gone.
“He’s lucky I didn’t catch him,” joked Mike Nutt who posted the video on Facebook.
It has happened for years during harvest season, but now that cannabis is legal, police are getting more and more calls.
“Last year was the first fall that we recorded our first marijuana theft,” says Tanya Calvert, corporate communications officer with the St. Thomas Police Service (STPS).
“We saw a trend begin and again this year we’ve seen another spike in theft of cannabis plants from backyard private grows.”
Pete Young is a master grower who has cultivated cannabis for 25 years. He was the co-founder of Indiva before recently retiring from the professional pot world.
“You are going to see it more and more with technology and people flying drones,” says Young.
“It used to be that 50 per cent of the cannabis you put out…