Eureka Pot Growing Couple Robbed and Beaten

It was an unfortunate event on the 4300 block of Little Fairfield early Wednesday morning when three armed men broke down the back door at the home of Daniel Jarrette and tied the residents up before making off with about 6 pounds of marijuana and 65 live plants.

The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office reported that deputies arrived at the home at approximately 1:45 a.m. and took down the details of the burglary. According to the press release, the armed men broke down the back door of the house and forced the occupants to the floor with handguns. The occupants were beaten and tied up in the bathroom while the burglars tossed the house and took what they wanted.

What they wanted, of course, was pot, and they found plenty of it, but that didn't stop them from also stealing a shotgun and "miscellaneous electronic equipment".

Unfortunately for Mr. Jarrette, the deputies who responded had to arrest him for his outstanding warrants in Virginia for conspiracy to sell marijuana, larceny, and money laundering. Oops! So it's true, you're not supposed to call the cops when you're actually a criminal yourself. And yet he thought, like so many others, that he could run away to Humboldt and grow his problems away. Guess not.

We still maintain, however, that most pot growers aren't criminals, per se, but the pot growing industry here definitely attracts the kind of criminals who prey on the growers. Which is why we should probably just embrace the whole marijuana thing once and for all, tax that stuff, and use the money to pay for better law enforcement to protect the tax paying pot growers! Is that just too idealistic?