Pot plants being pilfered from backyards in Kamloops
Some Kamloops residents on the North Shore have reported their backyard cannabis plants have been stolen during the night over the past few weeks.
Ken Davidson said his plants were stolen two weeks ago, among other things, from the yard at his home on the North Shore, an area that has been struggling with acts of crime, homelessness and drug use.
Davidson said his property is hard to see into from the road and his plants were only three feet tall. He believes his property was scoped out by the thieves in advance.
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"I got up at 2:30 a.m. to use the bathroom and go outside for a smoke," he said. "My girlfriend went out for a smoke shortly after, then came back to wake me up and tell me she thought she saw a bear in the yard. We went out to see the drinks from our cooler had been taken, a bong had been moved and our plants were gone, having been cut at the stems with pruners."
He drove around the neighbourhood looking for clues that night and after finding none, stayed in his yard until sunrise in case the perpetrators came back for more.
Davidson is not the only North Shore resident reporting missing pot plants this month, others are sharing their frustrations on this Facebook page.
He started his plants from clones this spring and has been watering, tending and pruning them since and they were due to be harvested in a month.
"The plants were not ready to be harvested so the thieves got absolutely useless plants," he said. "They will try to dry it out and smoke it but they will not get anything. Our issue is that we feel violated and paranoid. We spend every evening in our yard and now put away and lock everything up every night."
He opted out of reporting the incident to bylaw but is considering some ideas to catch unwanted traffic on his property.
"I don't think the cops can do anything about it and they have better things to do," Davidson said. "I live by the river so if I put in a motion sensor the wildlife and neighbourhood pets and traffic would be triggering it constantly, though motion sensor sprinklers might be an idea. Cameras are grainy and not helpful. You can see pictures of the culprits but what is that going to do?"
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Adults in the province are allowed to grow up to four cannabis plants per household, but the plants must not be visible from public spaces off the property, and home cultivation is banned in homes used as day-cares, according to the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act.
The federal government legalized non-medical cannabis on Oct. 17, 2018.
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