When I used to do appartment security work in Fort Worth, there was some idiot running a meth lab in an appartment, had been for months…maybe longer.
The tennants told me they had been smelling ether for a long time, didn’t know what it was. I called the fire department, who wern’t able to determine what apartment it was in, and after they raided the wrong one, they stopped cooking there…
The fire marshal was pissed they screwed things up.
In case your wondering, always call the fire department, not the cops if you suspect a meth lab…Fire departments have their own cops that raid drug labs, at least around here, and can do so without a warrant due to it being a public health hazard.
This was always the conventional wisdom while I was growing up in Boston, although I do see the point of some of the other posters. It seems a little far-fetched when you really think about it.
But then there’s the fact that the LA-area apartment building next to the one where my wife and I used to live, the one where, while we lived next to it, had skeezy, nervous-looking people stopping in for short visits at all hours, and where, after we moved away thank god, there was a three-hour armed standoff against the police, had sneakers dangling from the power lines on either side of the front facade, a phenomenon that occurred nowhere else in the neighborhood.
Well I had it done about 8x (overall in a school year) (always after school) being beaten up before I could get on my bicycle held by 3 guys. The first time was in the guy’s restroom, which was a mistake for them cause the other guys in there were nice and started fighting those guys holding me. Bret was there too, my best friend but HE didn’t help !!
The next time it was kicking in the lady’s door, and oftentimes the stalls were occupied. NO GIRL would help me, they just screamed and ran away some giggling.
One girl didn’t run away who was in the stall and just moved aside to watch with her mouth open in a leer at me. Jeez, some help she was !
Anyways, after my first 2 encounters, I started packing a little towel which I convinced myself was just to wipe up after the cafeteria lunch. The 8th time I had my fill of this ritual. Anyways, after that I decided to walk around the OPPOSITE side of school and get on my bike the longer way. I never saw the bullies again except in class when I changed my walking route at the end of the school day.
To answer your question, they always flushed face first me underwater holding my feet and waist.
Usually flushing 5-6x. I didn’t carry a wallet so they tore money out of my pockets while I was being held down cause Dad gave me like a $10 allowance in change.
I tried putting my money in my shoes and BOY were they mad when they couldn’t find it ! That was the worst cause they ripped off my shoes and pants while I was held under as they tried to find my money. (They didn’t toss them to the wires - that was a different time earlier at a different school). And they also screwed with my schoolbooks ripping off the paper covers, tossing my books in the toilet, sometimes in the trash when I was trying to come up for air. Everytime I passed out from lack of air or something, money ripped off, and everybody had already left. The only person I ever met was the Janitor a few times who said I would get in trouble if I was found in the lady’s restroom. I said NOT MY FAULT I got beat up, okay, he said that’s my responsibility, not his.
I talked to the Principal who was WEIRD and said anything that occurs AFTER school is (also) my own responsibility, and not the school’s. I told Dad about it and then I started learning Tae Kwon Do Mu Duk Kwan self-defense, but it never worked against those 3 guys. Took me 8 swirlies to realize I better change my walking plan after school.
I guess the drugs bit is akin to people who say that when a surgeon opens up a cancer victim, the cancer just seems to spread, little realising that the surgeon thinks it’s pretty far gone before they will cut you up. Shoes on lines tends to be done by bullies, often in lower class areas. It is just circumstantial that drugs get sold in the area. In any case, can you tell me where drugs don’t get sold?
The reason you always see pairs of shoes over powerlines is that it is a bit difficult to get one to stay up unless you invoke some form of magic.
The shoe thinggummyjiggywhatsitsface? No idea. We used to do this in Liverpool and it just meant we’d got some kid we did not like, and we were out to ruin his day. Such is the way with kids and their ideas of fun. He’d go home with no shoes and we’d leave his shoes hanging on a street light or power line for all to see. We laughed! Seems odd now.
As for the swirly thing? In my school in Liverpool growing up? It was a rite of passage. Any kid entering the secondary school system (12/13 years of age) after leaving Primary school had to undergo this and other interesting little rites of passage. Such as:
1: Being placed in the school bins (Approx 8 ft high, maybe 4ft in circumference - They were circular and on wheels) They’d place a new kid or two in these bins and then race them around the school playground and then throw them off stairs. If you survived this fun, then you’d be left alone for a while.
2:You’d be taken to see the golden goldfish, which apparently lived in toilet bowls all around the school. Usually they’d flush so you got a clean swirly (They’d drown you but not in feaces or urine, we’re savage just not THAT savage) This sport would occur for a few times a month, until you stopped struggling, or you weren’t as new to school as some other kid was.
Yep, school was an interesting place. As for me, well I got the rarely chosen option three. It’s so rare I did not list it. I got to play killball and then get the crap kicked out of me by the entire six form. Why is this so rare you ask? Well it’s only reserved for those who mouth off to any 6th form kid who wants to place you in a school bin or show you where the golden goldfish lives. that’s when they decide they’re not just playing with you, they really want everyone to share in the fun.
It was shortly after this thrilling activity that I decided I did not like hospitals either.
This is not speculation, its 100% true. Iwas involved in several occurances. There is(or was 10 years ago) a tradition in the US Army that when it was time for your ETS (end of time in service, discharge) you would get drunk with your buddies then throw your boots onto the power lines in one last act of defiance. For obvious reasons this was done late at night. The boots were usually spray painted some obnoxious color before they were tossed.
Beagle,
With respect, I would venture a guess that your experience with meth/meth users is in the “Limited” to “Nonexistent” range (and that is not a bad thing, mind you).
At the very least, your information is considerably out of date
While I certainly agree that meth is sold through secret channels, to your list of professions from which meth buyers come, I would hasten to add:
Clergy
Mechanics
Frycooks
Stockbrokers
University Professors
Cops…
You get the idea.
If this post had come 20 years or so ago, that comment would have greater legitimacy (IMHO).
I can certainly tell you for a fact that the sale of meth is widespread and I daresay that there are VERY few (if any) professions that don’t produce customers.
In fact it is the fastest growing addiction in the US, and is no respector of race, creed or economic stratum.
Therefore, “Meth is sold mostly to American humans.” is a more accurate statement.
People in labor intensive, long hour professions (warehouse workers, construction, health care givers, etc.) are more common customers, it is true. But there are plenty of stay-at-home types that provide a healthy market as well.
Truckers have to take piss tests a bit too often and alot has been done to make it illegal to do “The California Turnaround” as it used to be called, for that to be a majority practice today. Which isn’t to say it never happens.
I speak from experience, and only to add some calrity to “the record”
Shoe trees happen out our way for no reason other than one bored person being followed by hundreds of other bored lemmings. The tree that I live closest to is near Big Bear, California, and it is a huge Pinon Pine with hundreds of shoes hanging all over it. No type of drugs or no gang affiliation can be found there though.