Interesting Phone Call

[Mark]

Just got a call from the Auckland constabulary wondering why I purchased several unusual items from the LabwareHouse to be delivered to my work (an IT firm). The call came within half an hour of making the purchase! I had to tell her all about yeast starters and why they require large conical flasks.

[Reviled]

LOL, that is gold!! Wonder what they thought you might be up to ;o) lol

[Mark]

We talked for a while and she said they monitor LW for P dealers (obviously!), who have been using the site quite a bit. Apparently LW are very cooperative with the police. The call came as quite a surprise!

[Richard Jack]

Haha classic. That's quite a quick turnaround from order to call!

[Stu McKinlay]

hmmm... this is where the civil rights folk start beating their chests.

[Steve Baker]

Its a war on glassware!

[Tilt]

Echoes of Swiched on Gardener - "preventive policing" at its best

[denimglen]

This has been going on longer than the SOG deal.  

 

Cops called my house over a year ago for the same reason after ordering from LW.

 

I think it's a bit shit really.

 

For one - what do they expect to get as an answer - 'oh yeah bro, just cooking up some P, come round and arrest me'.

[Reviled]

"'oh yeah bro, just cooking up some P, come round and arrest me'."

 

Bahahaha, bro, you would probably be surprised mate ;o) P dealers aint always the smartest cookies in the jar

[denimglen]

Yeah, but if you're up on a bender for a week straight surely you've got time to think of a decent excuse to be buying lab equipment.

 

Anyway, as soon as the cooks get wind of it, and they will have already, they'll start knowing to have an excuse ready.  I mean really, the only way they will catch people with this method is if they answer the phone and can only come up with some very unlikely sketchy excuse, or they trace a lot of related chems or something going to the same address.

[Mark]

It's funny, after a while I started thinking I don't really want the police probing into what I buy. In this case I'm happy to help, P dealers are scum who need to be weeded out one way or the other (my dad's a pharmacist, and the endless shit he has had to put up with from buyers etc makes me supportive of moves against them). Police monitoring wasn't exactly advertised on the LW warehouse website though.

[Steve Baker]

If the alternative was having to be a "licensed" lab to buy glassware I think I would be OK with having the odd surreal phonecall.

 

Your point on disclosure by LW is interesting though.  I found this on their privacy page

Some items we sell are subject to restrictions imposed on us by legal authorities. Therefore on occasion we may be required to share order information with NZ Police.

[Mark]

There you go. I guess it's no different to asking for ID when buying cold & flu drugs etc, and I'm impressed at how efficient the police were at hunting me down.