School horticulture department burglarized for grow equipment

[OiledMandible]

Powerful lights, good for growing pot, stolen from campus
By Paul Walsh, Star Tribune
Last update: January 25, 2008 - 1:21 PM

Thousands of dollars in grow lights and other equipment have been stolen from Hennepin Technical College, and an instructor there said today that she believes the lights could be destined for use in illegal drug activity.

Some time late Wednesday or before dawn Thursday, the horticultural section on the Brooklyn Park campus was broken into, said lead instructor Debra Kvamme, who added that these break-ins have been numerous in recent years.

Along with projectors, microscopes, measuring devices and chemicals, the thieves took all of the high discharge lights, Kvamme said.

She said the lights can be used by the perpetrators to grow marijuana or they may sell them to others for the same purpose.

Along with the stolen items and thousands of dollars in damage to the greenhouse, the crime is a serious setback for the students' annual plant sale, Kvamme said. Last year, the sale raised $50,000 in two days, she said.

Kvamme said that she and her 65 to 75 students "feel violated" by the crime, adding that it's the sixth time in seven years that this area of the campus has been broken into, and the third time that all of the lights have been taken.

Kvamme said she is hoping for private donations to make up for what was lost and damaged. She believes "people in the industry, I hope, would see the need. We don't need tons of stuff, but it's about getting quality things."

Anyone willing to help the school can call Kvamme at 763-488-2470.

Video surveillance from the scene is being reviewed, and police are investigating the break-in, she said. No arrests have been made.

Otherwise, she said that it's too bad her department's plants can't talk. "They could've told me a lot of stuff," she said.

Paul Walsh 612-673-4482

It's no surprise at all that this sort of thing happens and has been happening for years. What tickled my fancy however, was that this school has been broken into six times in seven years and this is the third time all the HID lights have been stolen. You would think that at some point they might consider a little more security then just cameras...

It wouldn't surprise me if it was students that perpetrated this crime. I attended HTC briefly, and can comfortably say most of the horticulture students are in the program to learn how to grow marijuana better anyways.