11-month-old is stool pigeon; gets dad arrested.

[DeafPoet]

Link

A B.C. man probably wishes he had given his 11-month-old son a set of keys to play with instead of a phone, after the infant accidentally dialed 911 and brought police to his dad's marijuana grow-op.

Funny, but the part that kind of rankles me a little from a rights standpoint is this:

"We saw him playing with the cordless phone and just pressing all the buttons, so evidently he had called 911," Canning said.


With that mystery solved, officers began inspecting the residence and soon discovered a 500-plant marijuana grow-op.


SOURCE: CBC News

I'm no law expert, and I'm sure the search was technically legal, but you've got to feel sorry for the guy. I realize the cops can't just take someone at face value when they say a 911 call was a false alarm; for all they know, someone's tied up in the basement or something.


But really, it strikes me as borderline BS that they can take that as a carte-blanche reason to search your stuff top to bottom. I realize there's probably no legal basis for that feeling but it just feels off to me.


Thoughts?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Any 911 call is probable cause. They have to investigate it. They couldn't take the risk that it had been real.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Sounds like exactly what you first said--that they can't take at face value that it was a false alarm until they've proven it for themselves.

However, I don't know much about Canadian law. I know that under UK law, you don't have constitutional protections like you do in the US--but I don't know how separate Canadian and UK law are in code or practice.

 

[Mallory]

I'd imagine that it would be pretty difficult to hide 500 plants. So I doubt that finding them was the result of any kind of in-depth search.

 

[Pingfah]

No kidding, it would stink to high heaven for a start

 

[Ashu]

Ive only ever seen that in areas were cops are generally too lazy to check on a regular basis, aka the middle of nowhere, like Wahnipiate or Wanup and the bushy area in between.

And yes, I know from experiance, I knew the people who grew it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I guess they saw the forest for the trees.

It seems way too coincidental that an 11-month-old dialed 911, though. I'm thinking Sam Beckett....

 

[Omnius]

It seems way too coincidental that an 11-month-old dialed 911, though. I'm thinking Sam Beckett....

I hope he leaped in after the diaper change!