Not too long ago, police officers in Chile had the surprise of a lifetime when they raided a family's home and found that, contrary to custom, their presents were carefully arranged on the floor all around a marijuana plant wearing a typical Christmas tree outfit.

It is understood that, following this rather shocking discovery, a middle-aged woman was taken into police custody. The would-be Grinch who tried to spice up Christmas is to remain behind bars until next year's spring.

Marijuana plants do not proper Christmas trees make

The officers who handled this case say that the incident occurred in the city of San Bernardo in Chile's Maipo province. Apparently, the woman's home was raided precisely because the police had reasons to believe that she was selling drugs.

Having entered the woman's house, officers found not just the massive marijuana plant that served as a Christmas tree, but also 21 other cannabis plants that they say each stood about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, 29 bags of hash, money and even shotguns.

More precisely, word has it that, at the time the police paid her a home visit, the 50-year-old drug dealer and mother of two, identified as Angelica Navarro Pereira, had an impressive £2,500 (about €3,200 / $3,900) in cash hidden in her house.

After discovering the marijuana plants, the weapons, the hash and the money, officers saw fit to handcuff Angelica Navarro Pereira and throw her in jail. As mentioned, the woman is to remain behind bars for about two months and a half.

“We suspected she was involved in trafficking and when we had enough proof we carried out our raid. We expected to find some drugs, but the last thing we expected to see was one of the plants being used as a Christmas tree,” a police spokesperson said in a statement, as cited by Mirror.

The woman's neighbors had no idea what she was up to

Although bold enough to turn a marijuana plant into a Christmas tree, 50-year-old Angelica Navarro Pereira made sure that her neighbors had no idea how she got the money she needed to support herself and her two children. Still, she occasionally liked to joke about it.

Thus, one of her neighbors says that, before the police raided her home and she ended up being arrested, the 50-year-old joked about how her children would surely have a merry Christmas this year. Unfortunately, Angelica Navarro Pereira's holiday season isn't shaping out to be all that great.

“When I spoke to her yesterday she said her children were going to really enjoy Christmas this year and that she had the best tree in the world. She didn’t invite me to see it though, and thinking about it I don’t remember seeing her taking one in. Now I know why,” the neighbor said in an interview.