The innovative policing in Mendocino County -- when sheriff's deputies issued licenses to marijuana growers in exchange for a fee -- put cash in the hands of cops and letting legal growers feel safe calling cops if they were victims of a robbery.
It's not quite stop snitchin' -- and the deep-seated mistrust seen in urban areas -- but legal cannabis cultivators in Sonoma County may think twice before calling the cops to assist, after the victim in an armed robbery found himself in handcuffs by sheriff's deputies who took a disliking to his pot grow.
Five people have been taken into custody for the robbery, which occurred Tuesday on the 7000 block of Cougar Lake in Kenwood. That's where John Orgon lives, and where Orgon and four other victims said five armed suspects had broken into the home, according to the Healdsburg Patch.
Sheriff's deputies arrived quickly and caught five suspects who were in vehicles driving away from the scene of the crime. He then declined to let curious deputies in, which may have raised suspicions.
Soon after their arrival at his compound, they found a "large outdoor marijuana operation," Patch reported. Orgon was arrested on suspicion of cultivation.
No word on whether Orgon ended up sharing a cell with the five people arrested for robbing his home, or if he regrets calling the cops.
