WEED BUST

OAK HILLS • Electricity theft led deputies to a house with a sophisticated marijuana growing operation, where they seized 1,734 pot plants and arrested a man on Thursday, San Bernardino County Sheriff's officials said.

Two weeks ago, investigators from Southern California Edison alerted sheriff’s officials of a suspected utilities theft at a home in the 9100 block of Daisy Road, west of Highway 395 in Oak Hills, near Phelan.

Upwards of $69,000 worth of electricity was stolen over the course of a year, according to Sgt. Ernie Perez of the narcotics division. Cables were hooked up to SCE lines without a working meter, Perez said.

“We assisted Edison in writing a search warrant,” Perez said. “Based on the amount of electricity theft, we believed there was a grow operation going on in the residence.”

On Thursday, approximately 10 deputies from the sheriff’s Marijuana Eradication Team, along with deputies from the sheriff’s Phelan Substation, served a search warrant on the single-family residence at approximately 2 p.m., Perez said.

Deputies also seized grow lights, fans and other equipment from the garage of the home and from a van parked in the driveway.

“My opinion is that it was from another (grow) house,” Perez said of the equipment in the van.

A neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was obvious the people in the house were up to something.

“They were only here about three or four months,” the neighbor said. “They always had moving trucks and would unload on weekends and at night only.”