Pennsylvania Couple Sues Local Police Department After Cops Mistook Hibiscus for Marijuana – News

Lead photo via Flickr user Forest and Kim Starr

A couple in Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania is suing their local police department and the Nationwide Insurance Company after a bit of routine yard work lead to a false drug bust. The couple claims the police used excessive force and committed false imprisonment, all spurred by a hibiscus plant and an ill-informed insurance adjuster cosplaying as a narc.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune, the entire incident started back in September, when a storm brought a neighbor’s tree down onto the property of Audrey and Edward Cramer, ages 66 and 69 respectively. To sort out the damage from the storm, Nationwide Insurance agent Jonathan Yeamans went over to the Cramer’s home and took a look around.

During his routine tree inspection, Yeamans saw a suspicious plant, “surreptitiously” took a photo, and sent it to local police, claiming the senior citizens were growing cannabis. The problem, of course, was that Yeamans had taken a photo of some perfectly legal hibiscus plants.

The local police force didn’t take to Google to compare pics, though, and instead used the insurance agent’s cell phone flick to obtain a…

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