Man charged with growing marijuana on retired police chief's property

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Police said Ryan M. Steel picked a pretty bad place to grow dozens of large marijuana plants — on land owned by a retired police chief.

Steel, 26, of Upper Makefield Township, was charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, criminal trespass and agricultural vandalism. Authorities said he grew the plants on land owned by Robert Bell, the retired police chief of Bucks County's Springfield Township.

It was unclear why Bell's land was chosen to grow the plants.

"I don't think he had any knowledge of where he was," said Bell, who lives more than 20 miles away from Steel. "It was a this-is-your-brain-on-drugs type of thing."

Police pulled 29 6- to 10-foot-tall plants from Bell's property in September and arrested Steel on Dec. 2. Authorities did not say how they concluded Steel was the one who planted the crops.

Steel did not return a phone message seeking comment from The Intelligencer, and his father declined to comment when reached at home Wednesday night.

I love "Dumb Criminals" news.

Funny. What a dope.

"agricultural vandalism"

WTF??!!! Would that apply to cow tipping too?

Friend of mine lives next to a cop shop. Well, it used to be a police station. It's some youth centre now. Anyways. Years back when it actually was a cop station, some smartass prick planted marijuana seeds in the gutters. Some funny shit to see ganja growing on the roof of a police station.

Funny, I would think a police officer (retired or otherwise) property would be the BEST Place to grow weed... as long as the guy is in on it.

:agrin: