Photo by Michael Martin Garrett/StateCollege.com // A number of marijuana plants and growing equipment was taken away in a Ferguson Township truck.

Two people were led away from a Ferguson Township home in handcuffs after state and local law enforcement agencies seized over 70 marijuana plants from a greenhouse in the backyard.

The suspects – a man and a woman whose names have not yet been released – were taken into Ferguson Township police custody on Thursday afternoon in connection with the apparent marijuana growing operation at 2294 Charleston Drive.

“Be kind to yourself. Be gentle to yourself. I am a child of the universe,” the male suspect said to reporters as he was being taken into custody.

Photo by Michael Martin Garrett/StateCollege.com

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller says that a neighbor tipped off law enforcement that they suspected that the unidentified suspects were growing marijuana in their yard.

Working off the tip, Pennsylvania State Police flew over the property in a helicopter on Thursday morning, at which point officers were able to identify marijuana growing in a greenhouse in the backyard.

Parks Miller says police discovered “grow lights” and other “little things” in the basement of the house, suggesting the suspects began growing the plants in the basement before moving them to the greenhouse after they became “quite substantial in size and…very mature.”

The greenhouse was located in the middle of a small cornfield in the backyard, which blocked the view inside the greenhouse from an adjacent public park.



Photo provided by law enforcement

“This house is clearly an older house in the development and, as you can see, the trees and foliage are much more protective, and were able to provide a lot of cover for what was going on behind the house,” Parks Miller said.

Several neighbors, who did not want to be identified, said the residents of the house constructed the greenhouse sometime last fall. They also repeatedly described the house as “spooky” and said neighborhood children refer to it as “a haunted house.”



Photo provided by law enforcement

Parks Miller thanked the Attorney General’s drug task force, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Ferguson Township Police Department and the remaining Centre County police departments for their cooperation in the bust.

She also thanked the member of the public who tipped off law enforcement, explaining that “tips from the public are extremely important.”

The investigation is ongoing, and charges against the two suspects are still pending.



Photo by Michael Martin Garrett/StateCollege.com