Call me paranoid or alert but PLEASE CALL IT!!! Saw something very alarming today PIX

Hi all,

First and foremost I have four ladies under 600 watts, and this upcoming Monday will begin my 6th week of flowering. But I'm not here to even talk about my girls, rather what I noticed today... I heard a low flying helicopter and looked out my window... what do I see? A NYPD chopper flying back and forth extremely low, about a hundred feet above my building, strafing back and forth slowly with its left and right sides facing my window where the situation is. It would make elliptical loops around the area outside my window. Now it is my understanding that DEA mainly uses FLIR. But it would be foolish to think local law enforcement didn't have the same capabilities.

Should I be concerned? I can't imagine what else this chopper was doing. I didn't notice any highway accidents, and there were no assisting foot police as if they were canvassing the neighborhood. I immediately unplugged my equipment and they just lingered about, making wide loops around my place for an hour.

1.) This would seem to be extremely costly in terms of manpower and actual costs. I have four girls.

2.) Can thermal imaging penetrate my mylar tent? It is 5'3 (63 inches tall) and I have the port exhaust ducts pushed outwards to allow for passive exhaust since I have no fans right now to keep my temps in check. I do not have an entire room, but a tent within a room.

3.) Is 600 watts enough output to be concerned about? Is thermal imaging scans solely enough for a search warrant?

I don't know if I should chalk this up to my instinctive grower paranoia or if there is genuine cause for concern. I do not do anything illegal i.e. selling, or anything like that.

I will now be scouring the net to become more familiar with punishments for cultivation... I've come to far to just give up or throw these things out, but I almost did just that today. PLEASE give me your opinions, and realize that they will influence my decision as to what I do. Try to be objective as possible.

Pics: I took the pics since my phone can't record video... if it did you would see that IF they were surveilling me, they were being extremely reckless since it was loud, close, and in broad day light. This is another thing that makes me think maybe they were out here for something else, but then again NY cops are not exactly the brightest or at least covert in what they do. Thanks so much in advance

flir looks for hot spots like where your vent goes to the outside of the house. they cant see inside your house though.

FLIR can not be used to see the inside and have it count as evidence without plenty of other evidence to provide a warrant to do so. Just peeking w/FLIR gives them no right for a no-knock or warrant in any fashion. If you're semi-close to the Mohawk Valley Village... do not panic. (Am not fishing, nor do I want you to say if you are, or are not in thread by any means) .. there was an issue out there today that involved state police in an accident while on the way to a domestic. Hope this helps.

complete waste of man power and money to bust a 600 watt indoor grow using this method imo...

i'm also pretty sure that the cops must have a search warrant to use flir on a home.. don't quote me on that though...

and there is no reason they'd be flying over for an hour to bust you small 600 watt grow.. what reason would it take them an hour to find a heat sig? that should only take minutes at most imo..

i'd think it was some kind of man hunt or something similar.. i had the same thing happen a few months ago.. turns out some dude fell in a local lake and drowned and the copter was covering the story.. that sucker must have been 100 feet off of me house and was there for a good half an hour or so..

turn on the news and see what happened around your town today and i'll bet you find your answer..

Well if they are surveilling me, I don't think I should fear sparing details at this point. I am also not posting from my the place where my ladies live. But I live in one of the boroughs of NYC, and I've never seen anything like this in my nearly 20 years living in this city. I was wondering if they stuck around so long because I had indeed unplugged my light and they were either waiting for me to turn it back on, or something of that nature. Unfortunately I have no internet or cable TV where I live, so I can't check on anything that may have happened.

On the hot spots question, I do not have any heat venting outside my window, going outdoors, but do have a window fan blowing in the tent through one of the screened flaps (though blowing in, some light is visible through the fan blades when on). I also have the port where a fan should be wide open, to allow for heat near the light to vent outside the tent, into my room... but not outdoors. Does this prevent thermal imaging from picking up these small ventilations of light/heat? Is TI strong enough to pick up light leaks of light/heat like this?

You're posting from a computer or phone, can't you pull up local news?

I also live in public housing. Not sure if I'm granted rights as if I were in a "private structure".

dude, not to be offensive, but you live in nyc some where, and there was a helicopter flying over.. although you've never seen it near you in 20 years, i'm sure it's a very common occurrance all over nyc on a daily basis..

i'm going with something popo related, bank robber, shooting, man on the run, take your pick.. absolutely nothing to worry about.

Bakatare666 said:

You're posting from a computer or phone, can't you pull up local news?

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I've found nothing on my local news site... but then again this was just one chopper, and there was no other type of police presence so I wasn't expecting anything to be making frontline news. I have a good view of my area outside the window and as the chopper wasn't making wide and far loops, I could see exactly what they may have been looking at... and there was nothing going on in the vicinity.

racerboy71 said:

dude, not to be offensive, but you live in nyc some where, and there was a helicopter flying over.. although you've never seen it near you in 20 years, i'm sure it's a very common occurrance all over nyc on a daily basis..

i'm going with something popo related, bank robber, shooting, man on the run, take your pick.. absolutely nothing to worry about.

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Your absolutely right in that this is a city... but when something like that happens, you see and hear about it. This was a lone chopper. I've seen a lot in this city, and one thing I know is that the police (even if its for a minor drug related car stop) always have a show of force. I got busted with a friend for smoking a blunt in a car years back and two patrol cars responded as if the crime warranted the response. I also live in a relatively safe area, and NYPD choppers are not common.

JonTheBaptist said:

Your absolutely right in that this is a city... but when something like that happens, you see and hear about it. This was a lone chopper. I've seen a lot in this city, and one thing I know is that the police (even if its for a minor drug related car stop) always have a show of force. I got busted with a friend for smoking a blunt in a car years back and two patrol cars responded as if the crime warranted the response. I also live in a relatively safe area, and NYPD choppers are not common.

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lol yeah, i know what you mean about popo having a show of force.. i got pulled over for my radio being too loud in my own drive way and had three cop cars out front in 3 minutes flat... i lol'ed..

but my gut is saying that you're only growing four plants in a huge ass city.. surely more then likely someone within a square mile of your place has a much larger grow going atm, and you have nothing to worry about..
unless you're some big time player selling coke and meth out of your apt, which i highly doubt, i don't see why the popo would have you on their radar what so ever..

always go with your own best judgement, but for what it's worth, here's my cut on it
police aren't stupid, a slow motion copter sweep like that is overkill, and expensive
from the sounds of it, it would be easy(and very cheap) to setup a FLIR camera on/in an adjacent building and scope down to their heart's content
and it would be completely inconspicuous
my understanding is that a FLIR takes a warrant, i don't believe your risk has increased from that copter sweep
but you're the judge, and safe is better than sorry

For your size operation, I believe you are fine. Just be smart and aware of your surroundings. It looks as if you are in a communal building, so you need to think about that as well. If you are not legit, then you should have no friends in your building.

I do suggest having an exit strategy, or a 'burn' plan (not literally) for your grow.

Very rarely will LE use FLIR during day to search for grow rooms, and your tiny 600 watts will show them nothing.

A friggin' electric space heater can go up to 1500 watts and it is the middle of February, a time when all kinds of people are running up their electric bills with space heaters because they like to be nice and toasty. Worry about your heat signature in July.

why dont you ring up the nypd and ask them what they were doing .

















only kidding dont do that .

be prepared, it is the scout motto. but in my judgment, you have absolutely nothing to worry about from the helicopter.

i had a helicopter this summer while i was growing in my backyard circle right over my house, drop down low, etc...several times before going to another house near me and doing the same. turns out it was covering the two football games near me.

tehn quit wasting time and tear it down and get rid of anything illegal..someone you told may have ratted...and dont come with this you didnt tell anyone...you told us...so be safe and only sorry that you got rid of it for nothing...cause if you dont you may be sitting in Rikers being sorry tomorrow

do any of you live in the hood?

helicopters are a common occurance for me, usually because some store down the road got robbed.

during the summer though they came and directly checked out my garden last summer, almost wrecked their heli into my tree doing so. but even that didnt scare me, cause i probably wasn't the only one.


besides in both those pic it looks like the heli is circling the area in front of that window and circling over there, if they where after you they would circle directly over your house.

there could be a thousand different reasons for the chopper to be doing what it is. A sherif's helicopter orbits my house EVERY DAY and has for several years now. I have been known to complain about police helicopters but thought better of it. It seems that the pilot lives in the area and he flies over his own house to "say hi" to his wife. While I don't approve of his use of public funds, it goes to show you what can be going on. I was paranoid for YEARS before I figured it out. The first year I pulled up a whole crop of poppies in abject fear.