Got called a meth dealer...

So my partner and I had an interesting run in with our neighbor (whom we endearingly call 'crazy' (n). She was clearly drunk as a skunk the other night at around 1AM, and let her dog loose without a leash or tether (not the first time, won't be the last) - he promptly came over and started playing with our [significantly larger] dog.

Crazy: "Get out of those ass holes yard Toby!" "Toby, come here!, TOBY!" ... ad nauseum

HWMBO: "Can you come out here and help me with this?!"

I walk out... grab her rat with long hair by the nape of the neck, and walk it out to her in the street (she knows better than to even hover her foot over our property).

Crazy: "You can't just pick him up like that!"

Me: "If this happens again, I'm calling animal control and the police."

Crazy: "You're not gonna call anyone! I know what you're doing over there with your 'Brewing'! Ya'll are METH DEALERS! I know what you're doing!" (Screaming this repeatedly, drunkenly, and in the middle of the road @ 1 in the morning on a school night.)

She then gets on the phone with her gossip buddy we always hear her squalking with on her front porch...

Crazy (over the phone): "I just called 911..."

We stayed up for a while, prepared to tell the arriving officer to issue a ticket for drunk and disorderly, but no one ever showed.

The lady has had restraining orders issued against her from neighbors in the past and has a history of not getting along/causing scenes with multiple people in the neighborhood.

Anyone got a similar story or comment on the situation? I brew AG on a propane burner in the driveway for all the world to see and have absolutely no intention of changing that, but this all just rubs me the wrong way.

One more notch on our 'we're moving soon' list.

Why can't I ever see this stuff on cops!?!

ryandlf said:

Why can't I ever see this stuff on cops!?!

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Probably because everyone kept their shirts on.

To the OP, that sucks that you have to put up with a crazy neighbor, but at least it seems that you find it entertaining.

Until Oklahoma finally legalized Homebrewing I kept my brewdays mostly concealed in the garage.

Once it was legalized I stopped caring.

I think it would be fun having a neighbor like that. I really should start brewing out in the open more this summer and see if I can get someone to call the police on me.

it probably pays off to just be nice to her, but you KNOW you wanted to call the cops yourself and have them tell her off for you.

You're not doing anything wrong. As long as that stays the same, the only one getting in trouble if crazy calls the cops is crazy.

Also, is it weird that I want someone to call the cops on me because they think I make meth? I should move the brew operation from the back yard to the garage...

well, maybe you should keep the meth lab part of your brew setup a little more private and maybe she wouldnt have a problem with you

I brew on the driveway too and have had similar accusations. I fixed it in a hurry by offering them a free beer. I bring um in the garage and even let them pull the tap handles themselves. I go from suspect to hero in 1 min

Yeah... she's entertaining, except for the fact that she kept us up a little later than we wanted to be that night.

Any good references to the actual laws of states that made brewing legal? Specifically, Georgia? Not concerned... just going to print it out on posterboard and on an easel at the end of the driveway when I'm brewing next.

We're thinking of moving up to Columbus, OH... I see several brewers from there, so the supply/community must be decent.

I was in the middle of a move and had a bunch of brewing stuff in my car for a couple weeks. My mom came for a visit and at the time she was married to a WSP trooper. He walks past my car in the driveway, does a double take at what he sees in the back seat and asks, "So... been getting pulled over lately?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I keep getting pulled over and they give me a warning for some dumb thing and let me go."

"It's because it looks like you have a rolling meth lab in your backseat. They're pulling you over for a ticky-tack thing to get a close look at it."

Never had this problem. I'd been on an astronomy forum for a few years while I was actively doing it and one guy (not my story) had posted saying that when he was out with his daughter and telescope in their yard looking at the stars the cops rolled up and said the neighbor had reported a peeping tom and suspicious activity. The cops understood instantly cause the guy was out with his younger daughter and they could see the scope was pointed up at the stars and the old hag was clearly paranoid and crazy.

Sometimes living around other humans truly sucks.


Rev.

My downstairs neighbors definitely think I'm up to something illegal. They look at me sideways every time I bring in new equipment or go outside to dump what didn't get racked. But, they also look up and down the street as I'm doing any of it. Not sure if they're looking out or looking for another witness. Either way, I admit that I get a little satisfaction out of not explaining myself.

What till she sees the 1 lbs. of cascade in the freezer. Then she will really flip out and probably be your new best friend.
(I now have the image that your neighbor looks like the landlord from kingpin)

rhoadsrage said:

What till she sees the 1 lbs. of cascade in the freezer. Then she will really flip out and probably be your new best friend.
(I now have the image that your neighbor looks like the landlord from kingpin)

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let her smell the hops too... then she'll definitely be convinced

I used to live in a place that shared a garage with our next door neighbor. I made beer in there and she new it was beer but she constantly refered to my 3-tier system as a "still". I didnt worry about it much other than she had a big mouth and knew the landlord well. Thankfully we moved before we had any problems.

Here's a link to the statutes, there's a state by state pulldown http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/government-affairs/statutes

Here's Georgia-

Updated: 9/1995
Status: Permitted, subject to amount
Statute

Georgia statue § 3-5-4 represents a recent change in state law to include the lawful production of beer in the home provided that it does not exceed 50 gallons per calendar year free from state excise tax.
Discussion

The Georgia homebrewing community worked long and hard to create Georgia statute § 3-5-4. Although the amount restriction is well below the federal limit (200 gallons per year for 2 adults) § 3-5-4 provides an excellent example of how citizens can change the law in their state.
Special Provisions

N/A
State Alcohol Beverage Control Agency

Alcohol and Tax Unit
270 Washington St. S.W. Room 320
Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-4252
FAX: (404) 651-6849
Applicable Statutory Material

3-1-2 Definitions.

As used in this title, the term:

(1) "Alcohol" means ethyl alcohol, hydrated oxide of ethyl, or spirits of wine, from whatever source or by whatever process produced.

(2) "Alcoholic beverage" means and includes all alcohol, distilled spirits, beer, malt beverage, wine, or fortified wine.

(12) "Malt beverage" means any alcoholic beverage obtained by the fermentation of any infusion or decoction of barley, malt, hops, or any other similar product, or any combination of such products in water, containing not more than 6 percent alcohol by volume and including ale, porter, brown, stout, lager beer, small beer, and strong beer. The term does not include sake, known as Japanese rice wine.

3-5-4 Production of malt beverages by a head of household for consumption within own household.

(a) A head of a household may produce 50 gallons of malt beverages in any one calendar year to be consumed within his or her own household without any requirement to be licensed for such purpose. No malt beverages produced under this subsection shall be sold or offered for sale. Malt beverages so produced shall not be subject to any excise tax imposed by this chapter.

(b) For purposes of this Code section, a single person who is not a dependent of another person for purposes of Georgia income taxation shall be considered a head of a household. Section 2. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.

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When I was still living in Canada, I had a homebrew friend that showed up at my door in broad daylight with an entire BALE OF HOPS (Cascade if that makes a difference), in a large plastic see-thru bag.

Fortunately, my neighbors knew me well and knew I brewed beer; in fact, I had "trained" my neighbors to mow their lawn whenever my garage door was opened. [Guess who'd show up for a pint after mowing the lawn!]

M_C

I live in the columbus ohio area and I have never had a problem. I brew out front for all to see. The most common comment I get is, "are you brewing? My cousin/nephew/etc. does that".

From the sound of things the answer to your dilemma is obvious. If she's a drunk, just offer her some of your beer--a bit of the hair of the dog so to speak.

leviticus said:

Yeah... she's entertaining, except for the fact that she kept us up a little later than we wanted to be that night.

Any good references to the actual laws of states that made brewing legal? Specifically, Georgia? Not concerned... just going to print it out on posterboard and on an easel at the end of the driveway when I'm brewing next.

We're thinking of moving up to Columbus, OH... I see several brewers from there, so the supply/community must be decent.

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Oh, hell no! You really can't be thinking of moving to where the Blue Jackets play are you?

I have had the police stop by twice while I was brewing. Our neighbors were a pain in the *ss and would call the cops if we had more then 3 people over to watch the football or hockey games..
The first time they got called I had one keg on a burner in the bed of my truck, another keg in the bed(mlt) and my burner on the ground. Of course I had my chiller out. The cops pulled up while I was inside. Hell of a suprise to see two police officers "inspecting" my gear. They said they got a call that I was running a large scale distilling operation. I showed them all the fermentors that I had going, all labeled with OG and style. They were fine with it and left.

The second time they came over I was finishing brewing. I dump my spent grains in the front and side lawn by sprinkling them in and any lumps I just rake around to distribute. I had just finished raking my grain and finishing cleaning up when the police showed up. They didnt even get out of the car this time. They pulled up, asked what I was brewing and what I was dumping in the grass. So I talked to them for a few minutes and they said they got a call from the same neighbor as last time telling them that I was dumping chemicals and old food in my front lawn and they didnt want it smelling up there house lol.

the sweet thing is that people think that you would, in addition to making meth, do it in a populated neighborhood, out in the open for everyone to see.

Yep...I would be brewing in a brand new one of these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UGJSRU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20. When/If the police show up I would demand to have whichever neighbor that wanted to call the police arrested for "peeping".

Meth lab seems to be a recurring theme. I remember reading a couple of threads about "The dumbest thing anyone's said about your homebrew" (or something like this). And the response "Are you making meth?" (or something of the like) seems to always come up.

no matter who calls the cops there is still a 50/50 chance you might be tasered or go to jail for completely unrelated reason.

We built a home in a neighborhood where there was a Home owners association who's board members had way too much time on there hands. We use to get letters all the time for stupid stuff (trash cans left out too long, boat in the driveway etc.). We decided to put in an in ground pool. We had the hole dug and the pool was about 80% done when my wife got a call from the association saying that we needed to submit drawings for them to OK.

My wife responded " In a week it will done and Ill just take you a picture "

Never heard another word from them.

But I do brew in my driveway and I always expect a call. Most of the cops around here are really cool, and would love the chance to stop for a few minutes and shoot the breeze.

I often just tell peeps I'm cookin up some meth when they ask what I'm doing.

One thing to consider is that if her dog comes into your property and your dog injures it you likely could be on the hook for paying vet bills and/or having your dog put to sleep as "dangerous".

Next time her dog visits your yard you may want to call the police to report it so if something happens in the future you can show a history of her dog coming onto your property and inciting conflict. It may not be a complete shield to liability but it can't hurt. The police may be willing to write her a trespassing ticket for her dog being loose in other people's property.

It sucks to have conflict with your neighbors. When I was growing up we lived next to a house that operated a auto repair shop out of their garage. It wasn't such a big deal but sometimes it would get really bad. All the spray paint and smells would drift over to our yard/house and occasionally it was bad enough that you could smell it in the house. It would be incredibly loud sometimes and frequently cars would block our driveway or drive across our front yard. My parents wouldn't ever call the police but eventually I did. Code enforcement got involved and they quit doing a lot of the stuff. Then the guy died and the house got sold off.

Homercidal said:

Oh, hell no! You really can't be thinking of moving to where the Blue Jackets play are you?

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If he's currently in Atlanta, it can't get much worse!

PS: I'm sure you are, but be nice to the dog. It's not his fault he has a bad owner...

Jota21 said:

If he's currently in Atlanta, it can't get much worse!

PS: I'm sure you are, but be nice to the dog. It's not his fault he has a bad owner...

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Oh, yeah. Didnt notice that!

I'm sure it would surprised the crap out of a brewer if the cops were called on them and the responding officer invited them to his homebrew club's meeting...

With all the BS calls I've gotten, I've never gotten one for this.

I've never understood these stories. I know they happen, obviously, but I can't fathom how some people think they're so unbelievably perceptive and clever that they've caught someone red-handed cooking meth in their driveway, on their front porch, etc.

If someone was going to go to the trouble of doing something so blatantly illegal/sketchy/stigmatized that they're certain to do time if they were caught, logic should tell you they wouldn't be doing it out in the open for the entire world to see. Of course, the accusers are typically allergic to logic, but...

Especially with my yeast culturing equipment, constantly ordering from a lab supply company to my house, I wouldn't be surprised if I was on some watchlist. Probably didn't help that I asked if they had documentation on the P2P method (no, not really )

People over have certainly commented that it can look like a meth lab. If the cops came over, they'd find not just a bunch of lab equipment, but about six 1-pound bags - and countless 1oz bags - of fragrant leafy green stuff in my freezer (from the taxonomic family cannabaceae, no less), as well as about a dozen 1-pound "bricks" of white powder (dextrose and lactose), and a handful of small bags and vials of white (brewing salts) and tan (amylase, yeast nutrient) powder in a nearby cupboard. And even a few baggies of unmarked pills - servomyces capsules (customs actually opened that particular package because of them!), whirlfloc tablets, and campden tablets.

Oh, and two 5gallon buckets full of more tan-colored powder, as I recently bought 25kg of DME during a group grain buy - I actually brew all-grain, but I packaged it extremely well, and couldn't pass up the chance to pay such a great price for a ton of quality DME to use to make starters, correct OG even if I just slightly miss my target, mix up some malt agar, and even just brew extract batches if I'm feeling lazy, or want to experiment with hops, yeast, techniques, or anything else.

I'm putting my house on the market tomorrow, and while all my lab equipment is in a cabinet, people are snoopy, so it should be interesting to see if anything happens as a result of the open house

I always wonder what people going by think when i'm brewing AG in the garage.

emjay said:

Especially with my yeast culturing equipment, constantly ordering from a lab supply company to my house, I wouldn't be surprised if I was on some watchlist. Probably didn't help that I asked if they had documentation on the P2P method (no, not really )

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I am the owner/manufacturer/devoloper of an aquarium fertilizer product for Planted Aquariums. I have drums of Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulfate, and monopotassium sulphate delivered to my driveway. If I'm not on a watch list somewhere I don't think anyone is...

One of the products I sell is in gelatin capsule form. It literally looks like I'm selling drugs...

moti_mo said:

I've never understood these stories. I know they happen, obviously, but I can't fathom how some people think they're so unbelievably perceptive and clever that they've caught someone red-handed cooking meth in their driveway, on their front porch, etc.

If someone was going to go to the trouble of doing something so blatantly illegal/sketchy/stigmatized that they're certain to do time if they were caught, logic should tell you they wouldn't be doing it out in the open for the entire world to see

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What if the meth cook is just so clever that they're actually counting on this fact?

(Don't bother answering, it wasn't a genuine question; I am fully aware of the fact that this makes no sense, since even if everybody who saw it used this line of reasoning, it is still an absolute impossibility for there to be less risk in doing so vs just keeping it private.)

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Next time her dog visits your yard...

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...give it a handful of some old hops ;-)

jd3 said:

I am the owner/manufacturer/devoloper of an aquarium fertilizer product for Planted Aquariums. I have drums of Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulfate, and monopotassium sulphate delivered to my driveway. If I'm not on a watch list somewhere I don't think anyone is...

One of the products I sell is in gelatin capsule form. It literally looks like I'm selling drugs...

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I would actually be extremely surprised if you WEREN'T on some sort of list somewhere, due buying those chemicals in bulk! Though it's not like people are generally made aware of this fact.

But either way, you really shouldn't have anything at all to worry about.

emjay said:

I would actually be extremely surprised if you WEREN'T on some sort of list somewhere, due buying those chemicals in bulk! Though it's not like people are generally made aware of this fact.

But either way, you really shouldn't have anything at all to worry about.

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I am very sure I am.... I ship out ~100 packages a week of little packs of gel caps, too. So I'm sure that gets someones attention.

I havent had any issues while brewing in the drive way. Yet. I do have a KY State Trooper across the road and a Sheriff 6 houses down.

I have had an issue with a crazy neighbor. And she is literally crazy, but more so paranoid. I have an acre lot 1/2 of which is woods. I had a few dead trees on the edge of the woods that needed to come down and be cut up for fire wood. So I get my chainsaw out and cut them down. Well they are a little further in the woods than I would like to cut wood up. So I drove my jeep around the house (the side that we share, which is the side my garage is) and tie it to a chain and pull it out. Then I continue to cut it up and split the logs. Drive back around, no issues......for now.

The next day I get home from work and while I was gone, she had taken string and gone from the pole we share at the front corner of the lot and the lot marker at the back and made a property line marker.

Now we have been in this house for a year and growing up I always have made a point to have a good relationship with my neighbors. And all the others on my road are great and they like me the same. Probably because of the fact I make beer.

So trying to make sure I hadn't done something wrong I go over to talk to her, which in the past has been fine.

This time she answers the door automatically yelling at me about how I drove through her yard and over her septic tank. I asked her where I drove and she point to a part of the yard, I walked her out and showed her my tire tracks (now I have big mud tires and you can see the tracks very well) where she said I was, was about 15 feet from the tracks and in the middle of her yard.

So she continued to yell on and on for about 15 minutes until I told her that I had had enough and was going back in and she then tripped over her string. Being a "decent"person I offered/tried to help her up being that she is in her late sixties. She then tried to call for help yelling that I pushed her...

Once I got inside I call Mike, my State Trooper neighbor to ask what I should do to protect myself. He said to call the Sheriffs office and file a report before she filed a complaint. I did, but they said they couldnt officially do anything.

Well about 5 months later she came and apologized. She said she over reacted. As she left I also informed her that her septic tank was on the OTHER side of the house! lol