Topic: Police raids of miner homes? Should I expect one soon? (Read 4910 times)

So by now you all must be thinking "ok this dude is paranoid, how does any of this fit together?"...

1) When i called PGE they were really curious about my power usage, and my theory is police and power companies work together to catch people who grow weed.

2) My theory with this is he was some sort of private investigator hired to check out my house since it flagged me as some weed grower based on the power usage. He apparently asked my neighbor "is there a yard?". (The other theory with this guy is that maybe he was casing my apartment. I have a nice car in the drive way so maybe a thief looking for ways to break in.)

3) This one is what really got me thinking, not actually reading either one of these books I found out that 1984 is just kind of a "big brother is watching" type of book and Little Prince is a "Don't value money value people" type of moral. Now... I'm a young guy and innocent looking, I would not doubt that that private investigator was trying to tip me off that "someone is watching and my values need to change".


All of this has happened within two months since I started mining, I use about 70 KWh per day...

Anyways what are your thoughts? I'd like to hear all your opinions because since these odd things happeneing recently it just made my mind run quite a bit. I know I'm making some leaps here but it's really the best theory I have that fits all of this. My life is normally pretty ordinary and neighborhood very calm so these small things stand out a little (while not on their own, they do together).

I guess best thing I can do it clean up my house for when they come with the search warrant... lol




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It could be because of them thinking your growing weed, the police raided someone in my apartment building because of that. And they knew about it from driving around with thermal camera's and from power sage

If mining is illegal in your country, i think that will land you into problem, but if not there is no problem. But i think there is no harm in stopping the guy and ask him few questions.

To begin, make sure bitcoin and mining of it is not illegal, then contact your local police about what is going on, do submit proofs of what you are using the power for, after that kindly contact the power company with the same info you provided the police.I think it will help

So by now you all must be thinking "ok this dude is paranoid, how does any of this fit together?"...

1) When i called PGE they were really curious about my power usage, and my theory is police and power companies work together to catch people who grow weed.

2) My theory with this is he was some sort of private investigator hired to check out my house since it flagged me as some weed grower based on the power usage. He apparently asked my neighbor "is there a yard?". (The other theory with this guy is that maybe he was casing my apartment. I have a nice car in the drive way so maybe a thief looking for ways to break in.)

3) This one is what really got me thinking, not actually reading either one of these books I found out that 1984 is just kind of a "big brother is watching" type of book and Little Prince is a "Don't value money value people" type of moral. Now... I'm a young guy and innocent looking, I would not doubt that that private investigator was trying to tip me off that "someone is watching and my values need to change".


All of this has happened within two months since I started mining, I use about 70 KWh per day...

Anyways what are your thoughts? I'd like to hear all your opinions because since these odd things happeneing recently it just made my mind run quite a bit. I know I'm making some leaps here but it's really the best theory I have that fits all of this. My life is normally pretty ordinary and neighborhood very calm so these small things stand out a little (while not on their own, they do together).

I guess best thing I can do it clean up my house for when they come with the search warrant... lol




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Wow, that’s pretty scary. I would’ve become paranoid if that were to happen to me.

If you are not doing anything illegal, you shouldn’t worry. And if this is really because of the power company, then you should sor it out to them and make them understand every usage. But the thing you should’ve done was make them know what you will be doing with the elctricity. Doing this would’ve prevented any suspicions from the power company that might’ve lead them to doing what you think they are doing if they really have done it.

But you should still ask the police for help because you are not aure who is after you. Keepsafe.

Oh and yeah...back when I grew indoor my electric bill was over $1,000 a month cause I had like 6 1,000 Watt grow lights going, plus a dehumidifier, plus a huge power consuming fan you connect to ducting which connects to the hoods plus an air conditioner and a hydro clone tray and many regular fans all going at once. for most of the day. and some of those things have to stay powered on all day. So yeah it gets pretty crazy with electricity consumption when growing herbs indoor. One reason why I stopped actually...Cause the price of buds went down and my power bills were too expensive.
KayaMan

Yeah I have grown weed since I was 16 (stopped a few years ago) but my brothers still grow. One of my brothers lived in a nice neighborhood a few years ago and the cops showed up and said that they knew he was growing beause of his electric consumption... So my brother just moved. Lol.
So yeah, you could be right cause the cops do get info from electric companies.
Nothin to worry about if your not doing anything illegal man.

Peace&<3

KayaMan

Great story OP! I have never thought that power companies and authorities could mistake a mining operation for a metal halide and high pressure sodium grow lamp setup. Does make sense with a single standard MH and ballast drawing 1kw from the wall. I would not worry since you are not breaking any laws yet. Just keep your cameras up and insure your equipment. That "1984" book showing up would leave me spooked for days.

Great suggestion! Also make sure you have home insurance that will cover all your mining equipment.

Thats funny, I was thinking about this the other day. Im in an area where a lot of growing goes on, I believe they use helicopters with heat sensors and fly over to see if there is any fishy readings of heat mainly in the attic I assume.

I imagine the police going over my house and just seeing a PC sized object glowing red in my front room haha.

Also, if mining ever becomes obsolete or I lose interest or whatever, it would be easy for me to swap over to growing because the electricity readings would probably be similar.

Hmmm that gets me thinking..... which would be more profitable? xD

 

I wouldnt be afraid of the police, but of a thief or a group with malicious intent towards you/your assets. Protect yourself bro, and be careful out there - might be even wise to rent a small room and move your farm there if you can afford it (and leave it as a secret and set up a cam there).

Any updates?  I could use a laugh today, too bloody hot here at the moment.

We've got a resurgence of civil forfeiture going on in the US, and that's a terrible shame, as in my opinion it's a fourth amendment violation.  If they do suspect you're a grower, and you do get raided on that suspicion, that would be the thing I would worry over, since they can perform a civil forfeiture without even ever charging you with anything.

Mining is not illegal and as long as you didn't convert any coins into USD you didn't commited any crime. Also be shure, once you sell any of your coins to declare the income and pay the proper taxes.
The most likely scenario is that the police is suspecting that you are growing weed so be shure to talk to them at your local station. This way you avoid them potentialy breaking your door.

If you do not violate the laws, then the police have no right to confiscate your mines.

Well it's a ridiculous idea but go to the police and make a report that someone is stalking you. And you are afraid he is going to rape you. I read you are a boy. I don't know iif bitcoin equipments will put you in any trouble in your country.

You have to worry only If Mining is banned in your country.In my Country ,Mining is very legal.Even I am paying for the consumed electricity legally.So no one can touch me.If mining was not legal in your country so.Just migrates from that place and do Mining and approved country.If so ,you no need to worry about this thing and all.

OP, they so think you have a grow farm going!  Lol, this is hilarious and I hope that no one is injured, nothing is damaged, and everything works out in the end.  This is why I think the concept of "no knock warrants" is always a disaster waiting to happen.

But, I guess I am REALLY screwed, since this time of year I start my pepper seedlings indoors (grow lights) and I mine a little crypto!  I am so doomed.

Lols, don't behave very suspicious out in your back yard and infront of your house because of your illusion that cops might be at your ass. With that move for sure you will be caught sooner than you think. But bitcoin is legal to mine and as long as you are paying the electricity bills no one will touch you. So I don't think you should be worried about it. Cops might be having precautionary steps against you and neighbour by looking around whether you are not building a quantum time machine or bomb or shit like that. ;-)

So by now you all must be thinking "ok this dude is paranoid, how does any of this fit together?"...

1) When i called PGE they were really curious about my power usage, and my theory is police and power companies work together to catch people who grow weed.

2) My theory with this is he was some sort of private investigator hired to check out my house since it flagged me as some weed grower based on the power usage. He apparently asked my neighbor "is there a yard?". (The other theory with this guy is that maybe he was casing my apartment. I have a nice car in the drive way so maybe a thief looking for ways to break in.)

3) This one is what really got me thinking, not actually reading either one of these books I found out that 1984 is just kind of a "big brother is watching" type of book and Little Prince is a "Don't value money value people" type of moral. Now... I'm a young guy and innocent looking, I would not doubt that that private investigator was trying to tip me off that "someone is watching and my values need to change".


All of this has happened within two months since I started mining, I use about 70 KWh per day...

Anyways what are your thoughts? I'd like to hear all your opinions because since these odd things happeneing recently it just made my mind run quite a bit. I know I'm making some leaps here but it's really the best theory I have that fits all of this. My life is normally pretty ordinary and neighborhood very calm so these small things stand out a little (while not on their own, they do together).

I guess best thing I can do it clean up my house for when they come with the search warrant... lol




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Based on the story you put down, even if you get visited you have no problems provided you pay up your electricity bills and are not doing any illegal activities, or maybe mining is illegal in your country, if you are not doing any of these then you are safe.

I wouldn't worry about it if you live in the US. The threshold for a warrant is really high. High power consumption in itself is not a indication of illegal drug manufacturing.

You're probably less likely to run into trouble by reporting to the police that you're mining Bitcoin than if they have to go through the trouble of getting a warrant only to find that they've wasted it all - and then catch you on a minor violation and throw the book at you out of frustration with the whole mess. It would be nice to think that our law enforcement officers aren't subject to such pettiness, but better safe than sorry, that's for sure. The chances of there being a vindictive ass in the police force are probably higher than the chances of there being a tech-fanatic who knows enough about networking, cryptography, and ASIC hardware to actually hack your mining operation. If you are actually being investigated, most likely their response will be "oh" and they'll send out an inspector to look at the building - if not, they might not even bother with inspecting it, and they might be able to help with whatever else is going on.

I read an article two months ago, that people in Bolivia got all their mining equipment confiscated and they were told by the government "to focus their work on real money and not some internet money".
Where do you live? I tead trough all the posts but I missed it. As long as you're not living in an oppressed country or in the US, you can chill down, jsut call your local authotity and report yoir concerns. They should be open and happy that you approach them with your concearns. Especially when living in the US, I would to this because of all these bad stories you hear about police raids. Your life could change forever just because a stulid officer wanted to make a huge bust whilst ignoring his legal limitations (like the case posted before where the plant material judges as cannabis was never send to a laboratory).
If someone would do this to me, I would go and catch him on the street and ask him what he wants. If he's someone official and not a sketchy detective, I would show him around in my mining farm.

I know the police here obtain data from the electric co. about unusual usage fluctuations, and I think it's bullshit.   Does the phone company also report excessive phone calls?  What about if your Internet traffic spikes?   And heaven forbid you should get diarrhea and start flushing the toilet a lot! 

If the police can get a search warrant based on nothing more than your electric usage, you got a serious human rights issue.

If they are violating your right to privacy by looking at your electric bill, what other bills are they looking at?

I would recommend calling a lawyer.

Hope not.  I dont want to hassle with drugs and prepaid cards, cannabis is not legal yet in my homecountry.

Bitcoin on plate and building everything great

OP... that is hilarious. I guarantee you they think you've got a grow farm going.

From the story you posted here, I believe, you are surely under the regulatory watch and your whereabouts are being investigated. However, if you are not growing weed in your apartment, you are safe. But if you are mining some crypto currency, it is unlikely that you are going to jail. What is the legal status of crypto currency in your country. Has it been made legalized? Have you recently transferred a huge amount to your bank account?

If you have transferred a really huge amount to your bank account recently, then you are at risk brother! I have been earning bitcoin since 2015 and I do report my earning in my tax filing every year. Whatever I cash out to my bank account, I report the amount to my tax return under "income from other sources" head. Start doing that just to be safe. Good Luck!

It's pretty common in Europe that power companies and the police work together. If you have planned higher power usage you can just increase your max cap. If your building is in an industrial area they won't even look into it. So long you are mining bitcoins or other cryptos the police won't care they see it as a server farm when they enter the building if you then explain there is no storage most likely they will leave home straight away. If you have doubts now just take pictures with your camera and say what you are running and everything should be fine if you don't want the police entering the house in the first place.

So by now you all must be thinking "ok this dude is paranoid, how does any of this fit together?"...

1) When i called PGE they were really curious about my power usage, and my theory is police and power companies work together to catch people who grow weed.

2) My theory with this is he was some sort of private investigator hired to check out my house since it flagged me as some weed grower based on the power usage. He apparently asked my neighbor "is there a yard?". (The other theory with this guy is that maybe he was casing my apartment. I have a nice car in the drive way so maybe a thief looking for ways to break in.)

3) This one is what really got me thinking, not actually reading either one of these books I found out that 1984 is just kind of a "big brother is watching" type of book and Little Prince is a "Don't value money value people" type of moral. Now... I'm a young guy and innocent looking, I would not doubt that that private investigator was trying to tip me off that "someone is watching and my values need to change".


All of this has happened within two months since I started mining, I use about 70 KWh per day...

Anyways what are your thoughts? I'd like to hear all your opinions because since these odd things happeneing recently it just made my mind run quite a bit. I know I'm making some leaps here but it's really the best theory I have that fits all of this. My life is normally pretty ordinary and neighborhood very calm so these small things stand out a little (while not on their own, they do together).

I guess best thing I can do it clean up my house for when they come with the search warrant... lol




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Alot of times it because they think your growing marijuanna or making drugs. it sure looks suspicious but its not illegal at all. its a catch 22 because if you report that your mining then that opens you open to hacking. but if you do nothing the police might bust in there for weed raids.

This seems very specific. Almost seems like fiction.

 California I suspect - Pacific Gas and Electric.


 One up side of the area I'm in - not only is marajuana growing legal (on the local level, feds are still stupid about it), cryptocoin mining is widespread and common so the police don't have much incentive to go "overboard" raiding a place due to "suspected grow operations" and are less likely to ASSUME a place with a lot of "fan noise" is an "illegal grow operation".

If you arent breaking any laws  you will be fine..   I know  that feeling that you are going through when you think someone is watching you.
You are constantly looking out at everything as it is suspicious. You r mind starts playing tricks on you.

Theres nothing to be worried about as long you do make pay on those electricity consumption and maybe they are pressuming that theres illegal behind on those yards you do have (actually a mining space) its really quiet odd but theres nothing to be worried off and issuing warrants? for what? Mining isnt really illegal unless if they do want to taxed you out.

PGE - portland/vancouver area?

It's not mining that illegal, it's the small time grow operations they are going after. I think your paranoia is warranted and make sense. I would be looking into a new front door. They love to kick them down when they have search warrants.

In Soviet Russia you dont mine Bitcoin, Bitcoin mines you!

Go with your gut feeling, but i've not heard of any miners homes being raided unless you live in some communist country.

In regards to the 3rd point, probably unrelated. I seriously doubt they would tip you off by ordering a book like 1984.

Running 2 miners would not cause any usual activity from power company.

This summer we had a few interns and one of them said his college roommate runs 10 x S9 in dorm apartment because of free electricity and central air conditioning. Don't know how people would be able to live in dorm room with 10 miners running

Im from California originally and I used to run 10kw worth of equipment in my garage. I was paying $1100-1300/mo in power and over the course of 3 years I never had an issue. The power company did not care as long as my bill was paid. The only thing they said was if it got shut off due to non payment they would require a $2000 deposit to turn it back on based on my usage. I only had PGE for my gas though, my power was through a local company.

70kWh in a day is only only 2.9 kWh in a hour or 2 T9s.  Yes likely very loud but some people put up with it.

Dude how do you mine in apartment @ 70 KWh? I have 3 miners running at 1.2 KWh each and there is noise / heat problem. To be @ 70 KWh it would be 58 A741 running.  If you are running such a large mining operation from an apartment I am surprised none of your neighbors approached you about the noise.  I am currently running my miners under 3600 RPM so they're not very noisy but nevertheless you can hear across entire apartment, even front door if door to the room where they are is open.

I would talk to your building management first, tell them about suspicious activity and tell them you have expensive mining equipment and are concerned. Call electrical company and ask them about discounts for high electrical consumption, tell them you are a bitcoin miner.

Read what happen to this family and don't trust some over zealous detective won't try to make a case to advance his career.  This family is very lucky their kids weren't shot.  Your best bet is be proactive, discuss with the authorities what's going on before things get out of hand.

Appreciate all the advice from all of you guys on this. I'll probably reach out to the police tomorrow morning unless they "reach out to me" first.
I was joking around with my girlfriend that if they do bust in, I'm going to ask if they'd be willing to pose next to my mining rig.

Wow, that's crazy!  Did you look through the books/binding and/or packaging for a listening device or some other type of sensor?  In the context of drug cultivation investigations, I've heard of "bugs" being planted in packages that people bring inside.

Unless mining is illegal in your jurisdiction, you could go to the police and tell them what you've shared here.  If they were investigating you, thinking you were running a grow operation, they would probably be very happy to learn you're just mining.  Might want to take a look at your rig to verify.

Lol yes! 1984! Big brother is watching you! I just know they're going to speak to you at some point or just break down your door looking for a grow op. I'd say call the power company and the police and explain you mine bitcoins. Unless bitcoins are frowned upon too then just act dumb. "Do space heaters use a lot of power? I have 6 around my apartment."

I really liked your story. I thought I was in a movie for the instance.

Anyway, I don't think there is problem with your set up if the bitcoin thing is legal in your country. Just check with rules whether you can mine in the residential zone or not. These guys might be curious because of energy that you are using is not the normal one that powers the house. This is just their duty to confirm that you are not using the power for any illegal use.

No need to clean up as long as you are paying the electricity bills. Lols.

I didn't want to go through the trouble and expense of getting a permit.  I did hire a licensed electrician and it was all done to code so they didn't see an imminent threat to the safety of the building or public.  They called a few days ago to get an update about the permit.  He said that without a permit they will shut me down within a few weeks.  I presented plans for a permit over a month ago and they sent it back for revision.  Now I'm having issues with my engineers who don't want to do the revisions on the plan so I will probably just scrap the plan here once I have 1MW power in WA.  Power costs here in CA are 4x what they are in WA but I don't have rent to deal with here and the miners are just minutes away instead of 12 hours if there is a problem.

So that might explain a bit, I'm in CA too and also have a "smart meter". What was their reasoning to threaten to shut it down? Was all your work up to code?

What I find funny about all of this is that I know there are idiots out there risking their freedom by jumping the meter to get free electricity. Here I am doing nothing wrong (yet paying an arm and leg for electricity) and I'm probably on some list, while some scumbags who are literally stealing don't get bothered.

I installed 2 60 amp 3 phase receptacles in my warehouse in CA on a Friday a few months back.  On the following Monday morning I had 3 trucks from the city and utility department taking pictures and documenting everything.  They threatened to shut down power but I have a monitored fuel tank in the back so the state law prevented that from happening.  My power usage went from 4 kW to 44 kW and I do have a smart meter at the building, so that's what triggered it.  I have attempted to get a permit after the fact but ran into issues with that so they will probably come by one day to disconnect everything.  I just applied for 1 MW of power at a building in WA so I hope that goes smoothly, currently running 40 kW there without incident.

Generally high electrical usage is equated to marijuana growing operations. So while the high usage may get their attention, once they go through the process of getting a search warrant, they may try to find another reason to bust you even if extremely petty.

Yeah I have a pair of cameras that I put up right after the the guy was in our parking lot. I have one camera that just records motion (outside and gets triggered a lot). The other camera is at my front door and it sends an alert to my phone when I'm not home and it senses motion.

Somebody is definitely messing with you. I'd invest in security a bit. Get a security system with cameras that tracks movement and sends messages to your email and phone every time it's triggered. These things aren't expensive, you can get a decent one below $1000, provided you'll set it up yourself.
It may be some weirdo, a curious neighbor, one of your friends, the government... Don't get paranoid, but secure your investment. Better locks might help too

Will think about it a bit more and and probably call the local police soon. Wonder if they can do anything to me if I never actually turned any crypto back into USD, I've only traded between different crypto.

Yeah, I've thought back who might know what I have and it's very limited.

Overall I enjoy this as a sort of hobby. If it's more cost effective overall it might be worth getting hosting. thanks.

My guess is that it's the police like you said and if that's the case just call them and let them know what's going on.  It's better not to waste anymore of your or their time on this.  If you wait until too long and they end up kicking in your door then the dectective will have to have to "make a case" somehow.  Just keep in mind that although mining isn't illegal trading can be if not using a FINCEN trader.  This isn't something they're likely to care about as long as you identify what you're doing now, but if they kick in the door for no reason and need to bring a charge to avoid a lawsuit then this is an easy one to hang on almost any miner.

The other thing you might consider is to think back who you discussed your mining operations with.  Mining equipment is very expensive and an apartment is a soft target.  In this case I also recommend talking to the police and they'll step up patrols in your neighborhood.

The last thing I would say is I still can't see how people using PG&E are mining at home.  Find a hosting company and send your equipment to them.  Less stress and will cost you less.

Yeah it's a lot to process, it's been about two weeks since who the weird guy showed up about 5 days since I received the books as a "gift". It's kind of a lot to process and it led me to setting up some cameras (specifically right after the guy was scoping the apartment out). When I received the books I was not sure if maybe a passive aggressive neighbor was trying to tell me something (because I got those after the camera went up so maybe they notice that) both kind of make sense but I think what I posted here initially fits best.

I don't have anything to hide but it does make my mind run and it's a bit nerve wrecking.

Wow, what a story. It almost sounds like a fiction.

I do think that if you are doing nothing else illegal, and just mining, then the reason why all this happened was probably because of your electricity usage, especially when you are living in an apartment. Using so much electricity is simply not normal.

It could be possible that the police is working in conjunction with the power companies to catch weed growers, i don't know. It's a really wild guess. I have never mined with a lot of equipment consuming tons of energy, nor have i ever grown pot indoors. So i don't know man. Just try to not make yourself look too suspicious and you'd be alright.

Thought about that, but I'm not sure who would be conducting the investigation, I'm not sure if it's local police or another agency. I'll try and look a bit more into this, I would not want the police showing up and making me look like some criminal if they come here in some spectacular fashion. I also hope they are not asking about me from my work or anything like that as that could potentially affect my job even if there is nothing illegal going on with me.

So recently I notice a few really odd things that all kind of lead me to think I might in the process of being investigated.

1) Power company stopped letting me look at my usage the way I normally do and I can't make modifications to my power plan or even view how much it's estimated to cost me. The first month my bill for electricity didn't even show until the following month and still I have these weird restrictions on my account. I use PGE and normally I can see a day/day hour/hour breakdown of cost and usage. This is all gone now.

2) My neighbor reported some strange guy walking in our apartments private lot, he parked his moto behind my car the walked around taking picture of random things near the apartment. This person apparently came by about 2-3 times as I saw him when I got home and my neighbor had pics of him 30 mines earlier. He kept looking at me kind of oddly, but I ignored it not giving it any though at the time. Later is when my neighbor showed me picture and told me more details.

3) I get two books mailed to me that I didn't order, when i contacted the site that sent them they could only tell me the first name is given and it's not anyone I know or anyone who'd send me books. The books were "The little price" and "George Orwell 1984".

So by now you all must be thinking "ok this dude is paranoid, how does any of this fit together?"...

1) When i called PGE they were really curious about my power usage, and my theory is police and power companies work together to catch people who grow weed.

2) My theory with this is he was some sort of private investigator hired to check out my house since it flagged me as some weed grower based on the power usage. He apparently asked my neighbor "is there a yard?". (The other theory with this guy is that maybe he was casing my apartment. I have a nice car in the drive way so maybe a thief looking for ways to break in.)

3) This one is what really got me thinking, not actually reading either one of these books I found out that 1984 is just kind of a "big brother is watching" type of book and Little Prince is a "Don't value money value people" type of moral. Now... I'm a young guy and innocent looking, I would not doubt that that private investigator was trying to tip me off that "someone is watching and my values need to change".

All of this has happened within two months since I started mining, I use about 70 KWh per day...

Anyways what are your thoughts? I'd like to hear all your opinions because since these odd things happeneing recently it just made my mind run quite a bit. I know I'm making some leaps here but it's really the best theory I have that fits all of this. My life is normally pretty ordinary and neighborhood very calm so these small things stand out a little (while not on their own, they do together).

I guess best thing I can do it clean up my house for when they come with the search warrant... lol