Buzzby

Cops Sense A Buzz: Use Electric Bill To Snag Alleged Pot Grower
O’Ryan Johnson | Boston Herald | 11/24/2005

So much for the field of dreams: The Hanover son of a former Red Sox star was busted for a bountiful harvest of marijuana plants Tuesday.

Christopher Piersall, 34, one of nine children of Jimmy Piersall, a one-time center fielder, was charged with four crimes: trafficking, cultivating, distributing and manufacturing marijuana, according to The Patriot Ledger.

Piersall was zapped in a high-tech police investigation that used electricity bills and infrared cameras to ID the weed factory.

Hanover police Chief Paul Hayes told the paper Piersall was under investigation for four months before he was arrested Tuesday morning.

Police subpoenaed Piersall’s huge electric bill and used a heat-sensing camera in their investigation which found the source of the heat and power expenses: hydroponic plant growing equipment that uses high-intensity bulbs to grow marijuana.

Police carted off 175 plants valued at roughly $100,000.

The elder Piersall, a major leaguer from 1950-1967 and two-time All-Star, played for the Red Sox between 1950 and 1958.

He retired in 1967 with 1,604 hits and 104 home runs, according to the Web site baseballlibrary.com. He once brawled in the bowels of Fenway with Yankee Billy Martin in 1952, but he’s perhaps most famous for running around the bases backward after hitting his 100th career home run with the Mets, who released him four days later.

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