Well you won't be surprised to know the cops don't tell you apart from "information received" which could be anything from anyone or not at all.
But between what I already knew and my solicitor and barrister told me of other cases I did learn some things about cop tactics that convinced me they'll get most people in the end. It's more luck than good planning to avoid their attention.
You are terribly exposed in that business, no matter how careful or smart you think you are. There's things you can't avoid doing and people you can't trust.
As for the above -
Power usage, I doubt it as I was in an industrial shed so high power usage isn't all that unusual.
Someone rolled - there's people you just can't trust in the business, you try to limit your your circle but when you're trying to move pounds you're outside the circle of just dealing with friends, not that I'd trust anyone anyway. the only people you can really trust are those with as much to lose as yourself at the end of the day. Even friends you trust with your life have friends they'd trust with theirs who they might say to "Don't tell anyone, but...." - ever have any of your friends say that to you? Yes, we all have. And somewhere down the line it might end up with someone you can't trust. In my case I never told friends or family for that reason, they were legit shocked and dumbfounded when I was busted. But I unavoidably dealt with some people I didn't like, didn't trust, but had to - so maybe. Only takes one fuckwit with a grudge.
Infra red - is a possibility. You have to dump an awful lot of heat, in my case through a roof vent. it was filtered for smell of course, and the room(s) were air-conditioned, but you still got fan forced warm air spilling out of a roof vent on cold nights haven't you. Polair only has to be looking for someone on the run at night and come across an air-vent lit up like a christmas tree on infrared and I guess you're done - so maybe.
On that - funny story I read on a forum once. Cops got a place in Denmark or Sweden one of them, because it was the only place in the whole city that snow never collected on the roof.
Then there's dumping rubbish - you have to get rid of leaf and roots and stems and all the rest. I never put it in my bins as that's just suicide, I'd dump it at late or early hours in a skip bin at various boat ramps where the fish heads and rotten bait would disguise the smell - but someone could've spotted me.
Then there's the tactic my legals told me. Very very sneaky and exposes everyone and anyone who tries their hand at the game no matter how big or small. You see it's actually illegal for cops to stake out hydro shops as it's "without cause" so any arrest from such would be thrown out before it starts. However.... there's nothing stopping a cop, in their own time or not, from staking out a hydro shop, following someone they see making big enough purchases of the right gear to their premises of interest, and then said cop making an anonymous call to crime-stoppers with a tip.
Then it's a legal bit of "information supplied by the public."
And good luck trying to avoid hydro shops.... which i did. i actually got stuff delivered to me on the the side of the road just to avoid being seen there, but who says they didn't follow the deliverer who then makes strange road-side delivery's in the lonely back-steets.
So..... in the end, any of the above and maybe more. Cops are very patient once they get a sniff.
And what they'll also do once they identify you, is observe until they identify the day you harvest, which they can do by noting how much time you spend on site as opposed to normal days, just a pinhole camera connected to an iphone is all they need for that. And then they'll raid you when you got product on the dry racks. Because they want to nail you with possession and/or supply as well as cultivation.
Barrister told me that one. I did think it was awfully unlucky I got nailed at that particular time, turns out no luck involved, it was planned.
My advice to anyone - don't do it. See there's this thing I... neglectfully wasn't aware of at the time. I though keep your plants down and worse comes to worse, slap on the wrist and get on with iot again. had this idea of 4 plants (with roots) would keep you in the lower courts. Used to be like that in NSW... last millenium... still is like that in most other states.
But in NSW "Cultivate by enhanced indoor means" is now a serious enough charge to get you into a District Court no matter how many plants - ONE will get you there. And ONE on that charge has a max penalty available to the judge of 16 fucking years. Now of course, you'd be damn unlucky to get that, i got a non-custodial myself, but be in no doubt it's in play, some time even maybe 6 months is in play. You get the wrong judge, ONE fucking plant could get you time, you got any sort of priors - you're doing time.
If you want some free dope for yourself and friends, grow one or two in dirt in your backyard (NEVER more than 4). Worse comes to worse cops are likely to just rip it out and move on - you're not worth it. Had a story related to me once about an older fella had one in his backyard and the cops came - and left it. told him to hide it from neighbours better.
You go hydro - they're gunning for you. And you get caught, you will face a DISTRICT court.
