Nobody, except for a methamphetamine addict, wants to live near a meth lab. Because the cooks (the people who turn ordinary household items and pharmaceuticals into an illegal drug) are working with unstable concoctions, the lab could conceivably explode at any time. Anybody who lives near that lab will suffer the consequences of the cook’s actions, which isn’t fair or right at all.
If you suspect that you might live near a meth lab, look for these signs. If most or all of them are present, you can report this information to your local law-enforcement agency or drug task force so that they can investigate, and break up, the dangerous drug lab next door.
The people who operate meth labs like to hide their criminal activities. They will often black out their windows, usually with spray paint. In some cases, they’ll set up spotlights that point directly at the street. That way, anybody who looks in their direction will be blinded by the lights and not be able to see what’s happening.
The actual lab section of the house will be reinforced and heavily protected. Meth labs have in the past been protected by everything from “no trespassing” signs to guard dogs to barbed-wire fences.
If the area frequently smells like strong cleaning products, it’s either a cleaning woman’s home or a meth lab. Meth labs often smell like ammonia.
Meth can be made with all sorts of common objects. Canisters of camp stove fuel, ammonia, a big pile of pseudoephedrine-loaded products (like sinus medication) and lithium batteries are just a few of these items.
There are a few other, weirder items that meth cooks use too. Coffee filters with red stains are good signs that a meth lab is in operation.
You should also look out for excessive trash. Meth labs go through massive amounts of plastic soda bottles, duct tape, coffee filters, sandwich baggies, etc.
Meth cooks have to ditch the evidence – expended propane tanks, for example – somewhere. They often dump by roadsides, but not always very far from the lab.
Meth cooks have to sell their products to somebody. If lots of traffic comes and goes from the house, motel room, whatever – especially at night – that’s a good indication that there’s a person cooking up meth inside.
The users themselves will also have distinctive appearances. They’ll often be nervous and “twitchy.” Many have red sores all over their bodies. They’re usually very skinny, like to be awake at night and can go for a few days straight without napping or sleeping.
If you suspect that your neighbors are running a meth lab, stay as far away as possible. Inhaling the fumes and other byproducts can make you sick. Also: the chemicals aren’t very stable. At certain stages of the cooking process, exposure to air or water can cause explosions.
The safest response is to call law enforcement and report the suspicious activities. You can even write down descriptions of people and vehicles (including license-plate numbers) that come and go from the lab so that the police will have someplace to start investigating.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
What if you find a old hose and millions of cans and jugs that look old and a torn bag with white stuff in it would that be a mehy lab???.
Hi, thanks for the information. In the little town that I am in, the reports of suspected ‘meth cooking’ were laughed at by the Fire and Safety commisisoners. The board of health employee laughed too with, ‘are you afraid it’s going to blow up?”
Liz finally moved away, her place, (the other half of the semi I live in) is a pile of trash, three stories high. The smell of ammonia was always blamed onto my cat, (huh!), but 4 dumpsters and counting show that she lived in filth for years. Poor kids, (two boys, ages 13 and 6) were finally removed from the home. The landlord is ‘cleaning up’ but without hazmat protocol. A warning to anyone who wants to rent the place in future: 78 Grove Street in Welland, Ontario is unsafe. Her clients do not forget the address, they still come by like stray cats. Stay far away.
Hello I live in Eden NY and its the perfect example of a little farm town where everyone covers up for everyone. I have neighbors that live downstairs from me and they have all the symptoms of a meth lab. The basment light is on at two in the morning and people come and go during the night. We also smell ammonia and gasoline coming from the basement. I have contacted the local police and they say if you dont like this town move. Is there any higher source than the local police I can go to to take care of this?
Thanks for the tips…at least I’m not 100% crazy or anything. My husband and I want to move into this place that we are able to rent and afford. The only problem is that we suspect a meth dealer right next door. The guy has excessive amounts of small propane tanks behind his house…some are in piles just laying there by the outside of our fence and his place and he has many trash bags behind there as well. I’m saying there must be over 100 of those bottles just by looking at it. His windows are blacked out, but it looks like he uses something like sheets of aluminum foil. I’ve noticed when I’ve been over to the house, there are webcams under the trim of his roof. Now he has two webcams instead of one, and they are the nice weatherproof ones, too. I notice that he rarely comes out of the house, but I remember one time I saw him and he looked like a bum. His hair was a mess, he was creepy looking, he was very thin, and I didn’t notice any open sores, nor did I pay attention for them. It has been a year or so since I’ve actually seen him so who knows how much worse he may look like now. Sometimes people stop by his house, go inside, and come back out within a few minutes. The weird thing is, is when I have been at our new place, I haven’t smelled anything. Then again, I haven’t officially moved in yet. The times I have been over at the place, I haven’t smelled anything like cleaning products, or any other bizarre smell, but everything else leads me to assume it’s a meth lab. At least I know some other possible things to look for. I’m just concerned that the place could be a fire hazard, and a possible danger. I’m just not sure if law enforcement would take it seriously since it’s not in the best of neighborhoods.
ive been living next to a man who is a cooker and we have told the police about it for 3 years and they wont do a thing about it. we are disabled and dont have much money. ft wayne indiana should be ashamed of themselves for not doing anything!
Admin edit – I’ve removed your name. If you are going to accuse your neighbour of being a dealer, probably best not to attach your name to it
please remove my name from the above post as well, thanks
The police department in Mead, Washington, just laughed at me when I reported the townhouse next to mine. My friend had the same experience in Huntington Beach, California. Why do the police just laugh at us? They don’t even check it out.
Is there any danger living next door to a meth lab other than the risk of fire and type of people coming and going? For example will fumes effect your garden or flowers? I know a family that plant a huge garden each year but are now getting afraid to eat from it because they believe the neighor is cooking meth.
my daughter is moving to a house that was tore up how can you know if it was a meth house
I moved to a mobile home park, been here 3 weeks and I’m having respiratory problems. and ther is a funky smell (smells like, a mixture of sulfer, or strange sewer scent its an odd scent) in two rooms at the end of this trailer ( I hate this type of living) I noticed the trailer behind mine (about 10 feet) the people do not live in it, but they visit a couple hours a week, Like maybe 2 half days a week. Im efing scared they are doing something in there. I got a good look at their place, broken blind are pulled up and black coverings over them to block anyone from looking out or in. No one lives like that, very non esthetic. They also drive a nasty 70′s van and another old car. No one sleeps there, or leaves from the place daily. Wonder if the land lord is protective of these people? I swear once I find out they may be doing somthing shaddy I will go NUT CRAZY on their azz’s
I don’t blame you for being angry. I have lived near meth labs twice now in the past 2 years and now I suspect someone in my apartment building is cooking. After having the upstairs apartment (Above my unit) where it was being cooked and then moving into a temporary home, only to have the house raided three doors down for meth, I can tell you what the odors are like. Blacking out the windows does not always occur. One thing I did notice from the upstairs apartment was lots of bottles and cold med. thrown in their trash. They didn’t even try to hide it. The smells range from burnt acetone (like a nail salon on fire) or laundry that has been sitting in the washer for a month. Extremely sour. I have smelled the burnt acetone when the house 3 doors down was cooking too. Another sign is that those smells are more noticeable at 3 or 4 am when meth is usually being made. last week I was woke up by an odor at 4 am, the same one I’ve experienced before. I walked up 2 flights of stairs to see if the odor was coming from my apartment building. I didn’t detect anything. I suspect its in a nearby building on the property. I have had no luck with the police or landlords with the duplex I lived in. With the house 3 doors down, the police were on it right away. I’m not sure whether the type of residence makes a difference. I had called the police, emailed, called the landlord and make a nuisance of myself. Nothing was ever done in the duplex. The guy who was cooking beat up the girlfriend and she got a restraining order after I moved out. (Too little to late). She moved out right after. I sent the landlord a letter after I bought cheap meth testing kits online and discovered positive results for residue in my apartment. We shared common plumbing though separate heating systems. I hate meth users and quit a job working with addicts because of my lack of empathy for them. I’m just angry that they put my child and others at risk. Meth users will get behind the wheel and have no concept of a red light. It’s not even like a drunk who realized the light is red but takes too long to stop. It’s like they don’t even see the light. I was at a shopping center one day and saw a car nearly run people over at the light. She didn’t even slow down and the light was clearly red. I followed the car and it pulled into a fast food restaurant. I got a license number and called the police. This was near a shopping center where lots of mommas with baby strollers are crossing the street.
I have been smelling “garbage” quite frequently, can’t locate the source, but was told by a police friend that it is sure sign of meth lab. (I live in apt. complex) Lately, my hair is falling out, fingernails becoming brittle, lots of joint and muscle pain. Sometimes at night, I wake up coughing violently and nose and throat irritated. I wonder if I am breathing fumes from a meth lab?
I live near a Meth lab. It’s been here for 3 years. They were cooking between 12 am -4 am but now cook about every 3 hours or so around the clock. They started setting off firecrackers a few months ago and can go for 6+ hours then take a short break, cook, go outside and start setting off firecrackers for hours, again. It’s a nightmare. I can’t move from here. I’ve been getting headaches, had trouble breathing, get dizzy, and nauseated. I sent an online report form to the police but they won’t do anything. I can’t go snooping around to try to find the lab, either. I don’t know if anyone has complained that lives next to them. Just to give you an idea how bad the fumes can get in my place they almost killed my cat .
I too could not get police to take action on the meth lab on the other side of the duplex I live in, here is what I did and boy did it work and fast too, the police were trying to help me within 1 hour. First WRITE DOWN times its made, what it smells like and what signs you see in the tenants find out what the person or persons names are, do this carefully or not at all, write down as many car tag numbers of their visitors as you can safely get. This gives the police a lot more to work with than just your say so, dont let officers in uniform come to your door you dont want anything to tip these people off. Its better not to draw attention to yourself than to help the police but it does help your case with them. I had to call the witness victim hotline in our capital city and then I called the state attorney generals office and complained about the police, I had 4 phone calls from the cops with dogs In this state they can write their own warantsand together we are planning a sting these cops want to get them as much as I do. NOTE BE CAREFUL NEVER APPROACH THESE PEOPLE OR THEIR LABS. IF YOU CANT BE SAFE LEAVE IT ALL TO THE POLICE stay out of their trash its dangerous.