So...now I know why my husband and I got our house so cheap...
Lately, I've been exploring the land behind our house for the first time since we moved in a few years ago. A lot of the land is thick woods with thorn trees and brush so thick you have to crawl to get past it. The other day I was near our property line in the deep woods near where our neighbor's property starts. I'd been near there before but hadn't quite ventured to the property line because there are tons of thorn trees that get caught in my long hair and I have to crawl.
It's at this spot that I noticed this structure....
I'd seen this thing a while back but never could get close to it. There is a wire fence in front of it blocking a path to it. We think the fence was from a former owner who kept livestock there. On the other side are the thorn trees. I took a different path up the mountain and found myself on the other side of the fence which led me straight to this structure so I could finally get an up close look.
I'm really regretting exploring this place because what I found is a tad upsetting. Looking inside the structure I saw a green bag hidden underneath. I thought that was really weird. Poking the bag open I saw fuel and drain cleaner containers. Being so deep in the woods my first thought was maybe a former farming resident left oil and fuel for farm equipment. Deep down I was very suspicious though and started to look around at the ground.
Then, I started to notice this spot in the woods had tons of trash. There were lots of plastic drink bottles. Walking next to the wood structure I looked down and saw the biggest shock and clue as to what kind of person last visited that spot.... empty Sudaffed packaging.
East Tennessee where I live is horrible for meth production. Every day in the newspapers you see people getting arrested for possession or production of meth. It's really ruined our town. The Sudaffed automatically freaked me out because that's the #1 sign of meth. Then, I saw other strange things: empty battery packaging, Gatorade bottles with plastic tubing in the lids, drain cleaner, and lighter fluid.
How To Recognize A Meth Lab quoted from this source
- EXCESSIVE OR UNUSUAL TRASH – Meth makers produce large quantities of unusual waste that may contain, for example:
- packaging from cold tablets
- lithium batteries that have been torn apart
- used coffee filters with colored stains or powdery residue
- empty containers – often with puncture holes – of antifreeze, white gas, ether, starting fluids, Freon, lye, drain opener, paint thinner, acetone, alcohol, or other chemicals
- plastic soda bottles with holes near the top, often with tubes coming out of the holes
- plastic or rubber hoses, duct tape, rubber gloves, or respiratory masks.
Empty containers? Check...
Chemicals? Check...
Plastic tubes? Check...
Lighter fluid? Check...
So yeah...I found empty containers of everything you need to make meth in the woods near my home.
Word of Advice: Before You Buy A House Check Local and National Meth Lab Registries
After seeing all this I got freaked and got out of those woods as fast as possible. Here in the U.S. if meth labs are confiscated from property, they list the property online on local and national websites. I went home and immediately looked up our house on both. Thankfully, our house wasn't on the national registry but it was on the local one. Apparently, six months before we bought our house the police had confiscated a meth lab on our property. The realtor failed to tell us this when we bought the place. Realtors are obligated to tell people about meth lab seizures when trying to sell properties. Since this one was found outside and not inside I think they probably felt it was okay not to mention it which is very wrong. If a meth lab is found inside a house it can basically make the home toxic to be in. Inside labs are much worse than outside ones for home buyers.
Living in a former meth lab homes can make people sick. Cooking drugs inside of a closed house contains the chemicals so that it can take many, many years for a house to be safe to live in. Nausea, chronic headaches, increased problems with asthma, and other health problems can occur when living in a former meth lab home. Even though finding that a meth lab was on our property I am thankful it was outside and not inside.
National Registry Here: https://www.dea.gov/clan-lab/clan-lab.shtml
Meth Is An Evil Drug
So, I learned a very big lesson from my walk in the woods on my own property....I saw the remains of what was once a meth lab. I never in my life thought I'd see a former meth lab spot in my own yard. Cops did a pretty poor job of cleaning up the place. There is a ton of leftover trash up there.
Funny thing is, when our home got broken into in 2015 the detective who investigated was the same one listed as confiscating the meth lab 6 months before we bought the place. When I talked to him when he checked out house out after the robbery he said he knew our house well but wouldn't say why....now I know why. He never caught the people who built the lab. I'm thinking this detective thought his meth lab owners returned to our house and robbed us in the process.
Pretty scary stuff when you really process it all. Someone made meth in my woods 6 months before I bought the place. Four months after moving in, someone broke in my house while I was home and 7 months pregnant....might have been the same person...maybe a neighbor? Very scary stuff. It sucks that drugs are so bad here and it makes people do evil things. Meth is one of the most evil drugs in my eyes. Seeing what all is put into it...people are consuming pure chemicals. Who wants to consume drain cleaner?
I hope this post is educational to others. If I didn't live in an area where meth was so bad I might have walked past that structure and never thought anything about meth labs. I would have just though some kids were out there partying with all the pop bottles around.
