I happened to meet my upstairs neighbour tonight (in the sense that he saw me and chased me down the road as I was going out) - he's also a contractor and was away working when all the shenanigans happened last week. As one might expect, he was anxiously seeking further information about what's been going on, given that the common areas look like a bomb has hit them (and left a couple of mugs and a plastic chair there).
I told him all I knew, most of which he'd already got from his chat to the detective on Friday evening when he arrived home (shortly after said detective narrowly avoided kicking my door in by mistake). However, he had one snippet of information that I hadn't been given: "Apparently they found lots of plants being grown."
So it seems that I have in fact been living in close proximity to a cannabis factory for quite some time
I mean, last year it was pretty smelly so I knew what they were up to - this year seems to have been much more professional, as the first time I'd smelt fresh hemp in the hall was on Saturday afternoon when the Police broke into the "unoccupied" flat at the back of the premises.
My neighbour seemed quite unsettled - what was I going to do, was I going to move, yada yada - the usual panic people feel under such circumstances.
I pointed out that the raiders knew exactly what they were doing, went exactly where they had to go to do it, and most conspicuously, left us alone. It was a businesslike operation.
People (including myself) often say that criminals are stupid, which is why they get caught. This misses the obvious point that clever criminals don't get caught. And one of the ways they avoid getting caught is by not getting innocent outsiders involved.
I see no reason to move at the moment. If anything, the place is safer now that they'll have to find new tenants for the other flats, once the Police's sealed padlocks have been taken off them.
That reminds me - one of the padlocks seems to have been tampered with. I must download some photos from my camera... and then maybe pop downstairs to take some new photos
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