crack house or not?

[wayneinFL]

This is a crime question, not a gun question, but there's a lot of people on this forum who deal with stuff like this everyday.

According to rumor, the 4 bedroom house two doors down from me is a drug house. There is a family of four with an old Mercedes renting there. There is someone else living there who drives a red Blazer with no reverse and usually parks it along the road. There is a young man who stops by about once a week on friday nights/sat. mornings who, according to rumor, lives in the next county, but pays a majority of the rent. He drives a pimped out late 80's Chevy Caprice. He always backs his car against the Mercedes in the driveway, hiding the tag.

I disregarded the rumors until a couple of weeks ago when my 9 y.o. son found hypodermic needles in my driveway and brought them in to me. I asked around to some of the neighbors asking if anyone was a diabetic and had needles in the trash or anything, and no one could account for the needles. I called the sheriff's dept., and they sent a deputy to pick them up. He told me they were drug needles and someone dumped them there. He told me he would drop them off at the hospital to be discarded. That was the end of that.

The next weekend I spent a portion of a saturday night watching the house. From about 9 'til shortly after midnight when I fell asleep, and after 4 when I woke up, the blazer was parked in the driveway. Once every hour or so, a woman would come out and a couple of young men would push the blazer out of the driveway and she would leave for 15-25 minutes. She didn't visibly carry anything in or out of the house, or bring passengers, so it wasn't like she was making beer runs, or giving someone a ride, or getting something from the store. I can't imagine them pushing the vehicle with no reverse out to the street several times during the evening just to get cigarettes or something.

I've finally gotten the tag numbers from the blazer and finally the caprice. I could maybe find out the r.o., and get their arrest records from the county.

Do you think this is a drug house?
Would the sheriff's dept. be interested in researching this?
Should I go to the landlord with my suspicions?
Should I confront the neighbors and ask them what they're doing?

[Balloo]

Quote "Do you think this is a drug house?
Would the sheriff's dept. be interested in researching this?
Should I go to the landlord with my suspicions?
Should I confront the neighbors and ask them what they're doing?"Quote

If you dont see them doing anything illegal than just leave them alone.Maybe you are just suspicious or something.Really you have no idea what could be going on there so I would just leave it alone.And I wouldnt exactly go up and ask the neighbor whats gong on.Just let the cops handle it if there is anyhting going on.

[tlm225]

I'd advise contacting the narcotics division and inform them of your suspicions along with the plate numbers. They can check backgrounds from the names. Personally I wouldn't advise confronting the new neighbors, if they are dealing and get busted you may stand out in their memory. With needle showing up I'd be more inclined to suspect meth or heroin with meth being most likely. If the S.O. confirms the possibility of drug activity it may take a while to shut it down.

[epr105]

I know how you feel right now that you have a bad element living so close to you. You must work within the boundries of the law of the
State that you are living in...... I was in a suburb of NYC and was treated to a party every friday, Saturday and Sunday night. I would find glassline envlopes that had residue in my driveway. I would find broken beer bottles all over my yard. What really did it was the Noise level that was comming out of the backyard. It was always that rap music that has all bass and then they crank it up towhatever the highest setting would be and I could sit in my living room and feel the bass going through me. I asked around to the neighbors and tried to get some of them to help on this situition. They refused. The NYPD came by and said that nothing could be done. This made me really angry. Well life was never peaceful on tha block and I was quite nervous. I get waken up at 4AM to about six police cars. They had a report of shots fired at my address. I invited them in and id myself to them and let them inspect my weapons. Nothing had been fired for weeks snd they were completely cleaned by me. The person who made the call got a summons for something that night.
The cops left and I figured it was time to move. I did move and couldent be happier.

[4V50 Gary]

Drop a dime even if it is not be a crack house. It could be a meth lab which is worse (think haz-mat).

[joab]

If you dont see them doing anything illegal than just leave them alone.Maybe you are just suspicious or something.Really you have no idea what could be going on there so I would just leave it alone

My neighborhood had the same idea.

The Mexican family next door has a son who was 14 at the time. He was always jumping on his bike and riding off for about 15 or20 after his cell phone would go off. The entire neighborhood knew what was going on but left it alone because they had never seen anything concrete
Apparently the kid irritated someone and they came by to get even or send a message.
From the street they emptied a .44 into the house.
Problem was the family next door to them was also Mexican and had a 15 year old son and crack heads never were all that good about checking details.

No one was hurt and the true criminal kid ended up going to boot camp over the whole deal.
Now the neighborhood watches him like hawks

When drugs move into your neighbor hood the entire street is in danger,
Do what you can to correct the problem before you get mistaken for a Mexican family with a 14 year old drug runner

[Capt. Charlie]

Do you think this is a drug house? Yup!

Would the sheriff's dept. be interested in researching this? Yup again (hopefully)

Should I go to the landlord with my suspicions? Nope! Not unless you know him well. He could be in on it.

Should I confront the neighbors and ask them what they're doing? Not unless you have a death wish! You may be a tactical ninja with star wars weapons, but you can't always watch your six.

Go directly to narcotics officers. Don't file a routine police report. And have patience. Narcotics investigations are complex and take time to make controlled buys, etc. It might take months, but it will get done.

[DerDer]

You need evidence and you need it now. The best way to accomplish this is to photograph the entire operation for a period of time and hand it over to the police. With the evidence you provide they can get a warrant to raid the place. When your neighbor's house gets assaulted some early morning you can rest assured knowing he'll be getting along with bubba. Sip your coffee and revel in the fact that his life has been permanently altered.

[Sir William]

First, keep a simple log of traffic in/out, times, tags and brief notes of interest. A man with a gun, ether smells, ammonia odours and used syringes are noteworthy. Allow a couple of weeks for your logging. Proceed to the SO with your information and ask to speak with a narcotics unit detective. They will take action. I DO feel this is odd activity. One thing that could be used against the suspects is if the house is under federal rent assistance or a HUD loan. They frown on supporting drug dealing. Be careful and I suggest keeping your HD weapon loaded, hot and to hand. Maintain your cellphone also.

[#18indycolts]

if its in a neighborhood, chances are its not a meth lab probably any other drug. Not that it couldn't be mind you, but most metro meth labs don't last for too long and thats why most are found in rural settings. Drugs are drugs, it doesn't matter what kind but be careful if you approach this thing.

[Mikeyboy]

My parents had the same problem. Young guys renting a house down the street, a different car pulling up in front of the house every hour. My parents and I both made phone calls to various police friends, who in turn shot the info up to the local Narc unit, one day the house gets raided and SUPRISE, SUPRISE..5 pounds of pot, some cocaine and weapons found in the house.. the house was cleaned up by the owner and now a nice young family lives there.

What you don't want to do is confront the scumbags....you have small children...dirtbags like this will do anything to keep you from turning them in. Problem is it does not sound like they are dealing anything (there would be a lot more traffic), you might just have a bunch a junkies using the house as a flophouse. Unfortunately that may not be as high on the list of priorities for a busy police department.

+1 for Capt Charlie...good advice.

[Derius_T]

Like others have said, take some notes, keep an eye out. Be covert. Nothing like the watchee watching you watchin' them.

Drop a dime anonymously from a payphone a few miles away. One early morning door crashing party by your local drug enforcement unit will fix the problem......

[Pointer]

Please don't shoot the undercover LEO...

[Ares45]

and she would leave for 15-25 minutes. She didn't visibly carry anything in or out of the house, or bring passengers, so it wasn't like she was making beer runs, or giving someone a ride, or getting something from the store.

This tracks right along with a couple of the top ten rules for "smart" drug dealers.

Rule #2: Don't "mess" where you eat. That's why you're not seeing the traffic flowing thru the front door at all hours. It's delivery, not curb service. Also, The "young man" who stops by once a week and possibly pays the rent sounds like he's the supplier. He's the re-up man. THe supplier is not going to trust the dealer with more than a couple days worth of stash just in case he starts using what he's selling or gets raided by SWAT. As long as the money is there when he shows up to collect he'll leave another weeks worth of supply. Sounds like he's backing his car in to hide the tags and to make a quick getaway from threats both inside and outside the house. If my suspicions are correct HE WILL BE ARMED.

Rule #3: The dealer doesn't hold the goods, just the cash. She's the delivery mule.

Whatever you do don't confront the renters. Sounds like the people occupying the home are middle men. If they decide to act so the higher ups don't get nervous the you're in trouble. Or they may decide to inform the boss that people are asking questions. In which case I'm sure the boss man won't have a problem victimizing your children/wife or even torching your house. Hand deliver any info you gather to a narcotics detective.

[Hamjack]

Whatever you do, don't try to be the neighborhood cop. Clandestinely tracking and reporting on unusual behavior is fine, but don't take it upon yourself to investigate their activities. If it is a drug house consider that they are "professional" drug dealers and you are at best an amateur detective.

I would go to the narcotics division of your local LE organization and share your log of events and suspicions with them. Then turn the investigation over to them and keep your head down.

[Inspectorlee]

Reminds me of a story my sister-in-law told me. She has a coworker named Virgil who she hangs out with all the time outside of work. Virgil came over to visit pretty often because she had just moved to a new duplex unit in a decent neighborhood and he was helping to help patch it up here and there because she knows nothing about home repairs. Anyways, the neighbors called the cops on her, saying that they thought she was running a drug house. The reason being that Virgil was a black guy. My sister-in-law was surprised when the cops showed up and asked to look around. They found nothing of course but we still get a good laugh out of it every now and then.

[wayneinFL]

Yeah, my wife thinks I'm kind of paranoid, but she was the one who told me about the rumors to begin with. I pretty much disregarded all of that until the needles showed up in the driveway. Not something I'd normally expect in my neighborhood,whether it'sfrom them or not. I'd expect it across the highway in the less pristine part of town, but not here.

If it was just me living here I wouldn't worry about it, but my kids' safety in mind and all the money tied up in this house... Too many houses for sale sitting on the market- it's a bad time to sell- makes it hard to move.

Besides, I'm not paying $2000 a year in property taxes to the county to live on crack street, usa.

"your are at best an amature detective."

Amateur. Yup. Years ago, I got caught following a guy who had broken into my workplace and stole some of my things. That was awkward, to say the least.

"Should I confront the neighbors and ask them what they're doing?"

I glad you guys said this was a bad idea. I'm really not a confrontational kind of guy.

I think it's time to talk to the sheriff's dept. I'll stop by after work tomorrow and see what they can do.

Thanks for all the replies.

[2rugers]

HERE ARE MY REPLIES FROM THE TED NUGENT THREAD
Why the hostility jo? Answer my questions? How could anyone reading what you wrote about the mexican boy make the leap that he is a drug dealer?
BECAUSE HE IS 14, OR MEXICAN, OR OWNS A CELL PHONE AND BICYCLE, or ANY OF THESE COMBINATIONS?
Remember YOUR words "THEY HAD NEVER SEEN ANYTHING CONCRETE".
Lies, what lies have I told? I only, "QUOTED YOUR WORDS" verbatim.
The anger must come from realizing you are a (pharisee), or hypocrite if you like, and not liking that realization.
The only assumption I can make from reading what you wrote here is that the "SHOOTER" went to boot camp, not the poor hispanic child with a cell phone and bicycle. Please reread your post.

Any passerby may make assumptions as to why YOU are outside on YOUR cell phone at all hours of the night.

AGAIN, we are all racist i.e., we all ascribe certain physical, social, cultural, religous, etc... characteristics to different groups of people.
It is up to each and every one of us as to whether we also ascribe those characteristics prejudicially as I believe YOU have here.

As far as Ted Nugent being "FOULMOUTHED" as you put it, AGAIN, go and reread your last post on that thread and tell us who has the "FOULMOUTH".

Talk about HYPOCRITE! Man is this fun!!!!
HUMOROUSLY YOURS,
BRIAN

[Capt. Charlie]

When a thread in another forum is locked for taking the low road, it doesn't mean you can continue it in this forum .

Closed.

2rugers, you have mail.