Pranksters put marijuana in public flower pots. Clueless city workers tended it.

By Scott Berson
Source: miamiherald.com



 

Workers in Powell, Wyoming found marijuana plants growing in the city’s large public planters. Officials had unknowingly tended to the plants for weeks. Police do not know who may have planted the sprouts as a prank. Powell Parks Department via Powell Tribune



Workers tending to the flowers around the town of Powell, Wyo., were shocked to discover a serious “weed” problem.

Yes, that kind of weed.

Powell police chief Roy Eckerdt told the Powell Tribune city workers had been unwittingly nurturing marijuana plants for weeks in June.

It was difficult to detect them at first because the more “desirable” plants grew quickly this spring and covered up the seedlings, Barton told the Billings Gazette. When city workers discovered the suspicious plants, they brought them in to police for a look.

“They recognized what it was once everything started to leaf out,” Eckerdt told the Powell Tribune. “As soon as I heard that I went out and checked all the plants in front of the PD to make sure there weren’t any [marijuana plants] in any of ours.”

Barton told the Casper Star-Tribune officials were not sure at first whether the plants were marijuana or hemp - which may have added to the confusion of the workers .

“To be honest with you, and to be fair, without having a marijuana field testing kit, I can’t tell the difference between hemp and marijuana,” he told the paper.

So far, they’ve found three pot plants, the Powell Tribune reported. And Barton said it’s not the first time something like this has happened.

“We’ve had incidents in the past where, for some unknown reason, people decide to put pot seeds in the downtown — we have these large 100-gallon flower pots — and for some reason people like to put weed seeds in the flower pots,” he told the Billings Gazette.

“They [the workers] just mentioned to me this morning that in the course of watering, they think — though we’re not sure yet — that there may be some additional ones popping up,”city parks and recreation superintendent Del Barton told the Casper Star-Tribune.

As for any suspects? Eckerdt doesn’t have any yet, but considered testing the plants for DNA, the Billings Gazette reported.

The police chief said he had no clue as to any ulterior motive for the clandestine plantings other than “someone’s sense of humor,” according to the Powell Tribune.

As news of the prankster’s green thumb spread, commenters on social media got a chuckle out of the whole affair.