Victim may be charged after marijuana stolen

OREM — Growing marijuana is a crime. So is stealing it from your neighbor.

Orem police recently arrested two men stemming from problems with the leafy green drug.

The call originally came in as a family fight near 1500 South and 280 East, said Orem Police Lt. Doug Edwards. When officers arrived, they realized that a man and woman were arguing over a burglary of the next-door neighbor's house, and the woman was upset about finding stolen items in her house.

The man, 32, had gone next door and walked out with a flat-screen television, an Xbox 360 and several marijuana plants and grow lights, Edwards said.

After giving police several different stories, the man was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of burglary and theft.

Police tried to contact the 23-year-old neighbor but weren't successful until the next day, Edwards said. The man had been parking his truck down the street to avoid being seen at his house.

When police contacted him, he said he was missing a TV and a game console, but denied knowing anything about missing marijuana plants, Edwards said.

He gave officers permission to search his house and there they found drug paraphernalia, including a box of dirt mailed to the man from someone in Arkansas.

He was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of cultivation of marijuana and bailed out.