While in college and 18, I built a false wall (hollywood style) in the old coal room of my mom’s basement, making a little secret grow room, and grew 6 spindly little pot plants in there. I didn’t really even smoke, but I had some friends who did, and I just like secretive illegal stuff like that where no one gets hurt.
Anyway, the room was fairly ingenious but was always premised on the idea that no one would look at the wall without the lights in the larger coal room being on, since who would ever try to go into a dark coal room without turning on the lights? If it was really dark, you could see “light leaks” from the grow room and in fact probably even tell that the false wall was faintly glowing.
Well anyway, one night while I was away at college my mom thought she heard people breaking in and called the cops, who proceeded to search the entire house to make sure it was empty. She specifically mentioned that the cop went into the coal room, not turning on the light, and searching WITH HIS FLASHLIGHT. After he came out he shortly thereafter asked who else lived there and of course my mom said just her son who was off at college just now. I’m guessing that cop did see it but put 2 and 2 together and just didn’t have the heart to blow that thing up into a federal case over such a silly little operation that he could perfectly well deny having seen. Or else he really didn’t notice…I don’t know.
I should have been dead to rights, and by my reading of the relevant laws, and law enforcement practice at the time of weighting entire plants including roots with grow media attached, I would have been looking at as much as 5-10 years in prison PLUS my mother’s turn of the century $350,000 house could have been seized and sold.