• partial_accumen@lemmy.world
          48·
          10 days ago

          There might also be a followup examination with a thermal camera of the property, which with a server farm, would also show significantly elevated temperatures.

          This is why most of us in the USA live in constant fear that our hobbies of basement aluminum smelting operations will land us on the wrong side of the law enforcement.

          • gnutrino@programming.devEnglish
            30·
            10 days ago

            While everyone else lives in fear that their basement aluminium smelting hobby will land them in the morgue due to the fumes.

        • neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
          16·
          10 days ago

          Not even a power bill. They have been known to sign warrants for nothing more than an off the shelf infrared scanner/heat scanner showing increased heat from a specific unit in a building compared to the surrounding ones.

          Like your house nice and toasty in the winter? That’s a no-knock-raid.

        • ultranaut@lemmy.world
          8·
          10 days ago

          I’ve had cops come around to check out what they could when I was living with roommates and we had all kinds of equipment that used lots of electricity. We actually got a letter from the power company telling us we were in the 99th percentile of residential power use and to consider how much money we could save if we lowered our electricity useage. I’m sure if the cops saw anything they could construe as evidence when they were snooping around they would then easily get a warrant and do a raid.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
      36·
      10 days ago

      Happened not long ago that, for the same reason, police raided a tomography & XRay clinic. Guess what, an MRI needs serious power to work…

      • realbadat@programming.dev
        46·
        10 days ago

        If I remember right, one cop brought his rifle in which got sucked into the MRI machine.

        Even the warrant was based on a cop lying iirc. The basis boiled down to something like “energy use and tinted windows”, which, you know… Medical imaging and patient privacy.

        Idiots and asswipes.

  • Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world
    15·
    10 days ago

    I had the opposite happen one time. Our provider came out to check our electric meter because our usage dropped significantly when we had our old AC replaced. They thought we were stealing power and came back a aecond time to double check.

  • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
    5·
    9 days ago

    I once flipped on all my synthesizers at the same time, sparking a main plug (I cannot reach) so I had to call the building owner. An electrician had to come fix it.

    2 weeks later a guy was standing at my door unannounced, wanting to measure everything and check my rooms for a potential weed farm.

    I now turn them on in small groups to prevent it happening again.